Prosper-Alphonse ISAAC: Cancale (Bretagne)

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[Cancale, in Brittany (France)]

Woodcut printed in colors in the Japanese way, 218 x 310 mm. Vabre 82.

Very fine impression printed full margins on laid japan paper, bearing the « I in flower » of Isaac (cf Lugt 4990).

In very fine condition.

Boats and crafts feature extensively in Prosper-Alphonse Isaac's œuvre, whether they are French (from Brittany or Pas-De-Calais), Japanese, Dutch or Italian. This interest in boats stems from his passion for Japanese prints : he made the technique and the subjects of Japanese prints his own during his collaboration with Yoshijirô Urushibara (1889-1953), who was a young engraver working for Shimbi Shoin, the famous Tokyo art printer.

The boat, run aground like the carcass of a huge cetacean half swallowed up by the sand, still looms with a threatening appearance, and emanates a feeling of anxiety that is reflected in the ocher and green, marshy tones of the print.

Isaac's prints weren't widely distributed and are very rare nowadays.

References: Émilie Vabre, Prosper-Alphonse Isaac (1858-1924), Entre régionalisme et japonisme, University Paris 1, 2009-2010; Émilie Vabre, « Prosper-Alphonse Isaac (1858-1924), graveur sur bois à la manière japonaise », in Nouvelles de l’estampe, n°237; Japon-Paris-Bretagne, la gravure sur bois en couleurs, exhibition catalogue Musée départemental breton, Quimper, 2012, p. 26 (ill.).

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