Félix BUHOT: L’Enterrement du burin, frontispice pour L’Illustration Nouvelle - 1st state/5 - 1877

SOLD

[The engraving’s burial]

Etching, 345 x 278 mm. Bourcard/Goodfriend 124, 1st state (of 5).

Impression of the 1st state (of 5 according to Goodfriend), the locomotive alone in the right part of the print, before many additional works.

Superb impresssion printed on laid watermarked paper (letters D&C). In excellent condition. A very tiny foxmark in the subject and some rare tiny foxmarks in the margins. Full margins (sheet: 514 x 353 mm).

Provenance: Marcel Lecomte, his blindstamp with initials ML in the bottom left margin (Lugt undescribed).

Extremely rare working proof of the first state.

Buhot first etched the locomotive “in bold, brutal strokes” (Gustave Bourcard [our translation]). In the second state, he completed the left side with more precise strokes of varying thickness. In the third state, according to Bourcard, the rebite of the plate produced partial foul biting in order to create a wash-like effect similar to the aquatint. Notice the woman's face of the winged monster with a serpent's tail: its traits are perfectly visible in the first state, but disappear in shadow in the second state.

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