Manuel Robbe
Avril
c. 1906

Name: Avril
Brand: Manuel Robbe
Price: 2500 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

Avril (April) Color aquatint and etching, c. 1906 Signed in pencil lower right Edition: c. 100 Excellent impression, fresh colors Reference: Merrill Chase Volume 1, No. 9 Condition: very good, very slight matt staining colors very fresh Image/plate size: 19 3/8 x 13 inches Sheet size: 24 13/16 x 17 13/16 inches Provenance: Arthur Gilbert, noted collector The colors are applied to the printing plate by hand in a technique called "a la poupee". From Wikipedia: "À la poupée is a largely historic intaglio printmaking technique for making colour prints by applying different ink colours to a single printing plate using ball-shaped wads of cloth, one for each colour. " Sometimes this manner of applying inks is called monoprint inking. By the nature of the hand application and blending of colors, each impressions varies to some degree. That's why it looks like a painting. This gives the finished etching a "painterly effect" that many find to be most pleasing. The artist was hugely popular in the 1970's and 1980's here in America, Manuel Robbe (Alphonse, a.k.a. Eugene Lafitte) 1872-1936 Born Alphonse Lafitte in Paris in 1872, Manuel Robbe developed his art during the years of controversy preceding the revolution of early 20th century modern art. Robbe studied painting at the Academie Julian and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He learned printmaking early on, exhibited at the Salons and won a medal at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1900. Following the productive years of his youth, Robbe served as a pilot in the First World War. Afterwards, as happened to so many after the experience of war, he lost much of his creative impulse. Though he lived until 1936, he is known for his richly printed color aquatints created at the turn of the century, images fully evocative of the days of the Belle Epoque. Manuel Robbe is noted for his experimental approach to printmaking. During his career he created more than 200 aquatints and drypoints. A great technician, he created “a technique known as ‘sugar-life’ which gave his prints a startling subtlety. Robbe's technique was developed over several phases. He printed his design with a mixture of sugar, India ink and gum Arabic, on his zinc plate. This was followed by heating the plate and working with the soft-ground etching process until the desired result was achieved. Finally, Robbe painted the subject on the zinc plate with an oil paint brush. For this process he used a special brush made of rags, called 'a la poupée' (with a doll), a process used by French engravers of the 18th century. In completing his image, Robbe used his fingers to play with the tone on the zinc plate, making many of his color prints appear completely unique. He arrived at new shades of color every time he pulled an impression; for example, park scenes appear in spring colors and also in colors associated with autumn." (Christopher Clark) From 1898, Robbe had the support and encouragement of the great print dealer-publisher Edmond Sagot, who had contributed enormously to the flowering of printmaking among avant-garde artists in the last decades of the 19th century, helping to win the acceptance of colored prints as a serious art medium. Robbe stayed shy of the avant-garde movements, though there is a mysterious symbolist quality in some of his works, and did not participate in the dominant field of color lithography. His aesthetic and technical accomplishments in his chosen specialty of color aquatint deserve a respected niche in the history of the period. With the rebirth of a market for prints as collectable, democratically available works of art, color prints came to be regarded as objects meant to be displayed on walls, like paintings, rather than kept closed in portfolios. Robbe's very painterly aquatints served the function well, for he developed his prints with a depth of tone and modeled mass more often seen in paintings than in the graphic arts, yet still with a printmaker's regard for the special textures and sparkle of works on paper. Most of Robbe's prints are with some etching or drypoint. Some have just a very small area of drypoint or etched work it may take some hunting to discover delineating form and giving an almost hidden point of focus to the composition. Robbe's gift was for creating aquatint prints with softly contoured forms, autumnal tones, pastel hues and a masterful use of black.

Creator:

Manuel Robbe (1872 - 1936, French)

Creation Year:

c. 1906

Dimensions:

Height: 19.38 in (49.23 cm)Width: 13 in (33.02 cm)

Medium:

Aquatint

Movement & Style:

Impressionist

Period:

1900-1909