Félix BRACQUEMOND: Portrait of Léon Cladel: the preparatory drawing and an impression of the etching - 1883
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Charcoal drawing, 320 x 270 mm at the borderline, on laid paper (sheet: 420 x 310 mm), signed in ink bottom right and dedicated to ‘Maurice Guillemot’.
Preparatory drawing for the Portrait of Léon Cladel etched by Bracquemond in 1883 (Beraldi 21).
Staining of the paper, otherwise in good condition.
Like Bracquemond, Léon Cladel (1835-1892) came from a modest background. A naturalist novelist from the Quercy region, he belonged, like Flaubert and Zola, to the small circle of realist artists and writers whose company Edmond de Goncourt frequently sought out.
This portrait of Cladel, drawn from life, is particularly expressive. His attitude, with his arm resting on the back of the chair, recalls that of Meryon in the portrait etched by Bracquemond. Cladel is looking directly at us: his gaze and the position of his hands are replicated with exactitude in the etching. Later on, Bracquemond only alters the background slightly, adding a book and a map on the table to the right of the model.
In the drawing, the far wall is left blank, and that is the way it appears in the first state of the etching, before it is progressively shadowed in, in the following two states. The dimensions of the sketch and the print are similar.
Maurice Guillemot (1859-1931) was a man of letters and an art historian; he was an intimate friend of Léon Cladel and they met frequently until his death.
Together with: Félix BRACQUEMOND: Portrait of Léon Cladel
Etching and drypoint, 330 x 270 mm. Beraldi 21, 3rd state (of 3).
Fine impression of the final state, printed on laid paper with watermark (BFK Rives). Stamp of L'Estampe Originale (Lugt 887a).
In very fine condition. Full margins (sheet: 465 x 325 mm).