Les Hirondelles (The Swallows)

Félix Bracquemond

1833–1914

Les Hirondelles (The Swallows), circa 1882

Where object was made: France

Material/technique: etching; drypoint; roulette

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 314 x 265 mm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 369 x 308 mm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 12 3/8 x 10 7/16 in
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 14 1/2 x 12 1/8 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 20 x 16 in

Credit line: Gift from the John and Ann Talleur Collection

Accession number: 2001.0100

Not on display

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Exhibition Label: "Inspired by Japan," Mar-2003, Cori Sherman Bracquemond was at the forefront of the etching revival in France. With other etchers of the period, including Edouard Manet, he co-founded the Société des Aquafortistes in 1862. Bracquemond was also one of the first French artists to discover and popularize Japanese prints, reputedly having come upon volumes of Hokusai’s Manga in Auguste Delâtre’s Paris printshop in 1856. He adopted ukiyoe-style asymmetrical compositions and reproduced their motifs in his etchings and ceramics. He often replicated Japanese bird-and-flower (kacho-) designs from ukiyoe prints and illustrated books. The center swallow in this print is borrowed from Hiroshige’s printed volume of drawings, Ukiyo gafu [Album of Drawings from the Floating World], and is set into a landscape with a Japanese-inspired, birdseye vantage point ingeniously combined with an equally high horizon.