The second edition of Paris Print Fair

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1. Lucas Cranach (1472-1553)
The Penance of Chrysostom, 1509
Burin
Kunsthandlung H. H. Rumbler
Photo: Kunsthandlung H. H. Rumbler
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While the Salon du Dessin, a flagship event for the art market at the end of March, is in full swing in Paris with a great success and an attendance (especially museums) the likes of which have not been seen since 2019 (article forthcoming), printmaking is also having its own Salon, with the second Paris Print Fair (March 23-26).

As many Anglo-Saxon curators are responsible for both drawing and print collections, the coincidence of the two events contributes a little more to making Paris one of the art market’s strongest centres. At the inauguration, visitors flocked to both aisles of the Salon, which was held in the Cordeliers convent on rue de l’École-de-Médecine, even more so than last year’s first edition.

Printmaking is a field that we know little about at La Tribune de l’Art, which is a shame, and we don’t talk about it often enough. We hope that this will change in the next few years, but it was impossible not to mention this event that brings together some of the best European galleries in this field.
Of course, one could see high quality prints by the greatest engravers such as Jacques Bellange, Rembrandt, Goya or Lucas Cranach (ill. 1). But this technique has been used by a very large number of artists, for original engravings, of course, but also in the field of interpretation. We have chosen here a few examples of works that we feel are representative of several periods and schools, but obviously without any concern for completeness.


2. Hans Baldung Grien (c. 1484-1545)
The Body of Christ Carried by Angels to Heaven, c. 1515-1517
Woodcut - 22.1 x 15.5 cm
Kunsthandlung H. H. Rumbler
Photo: Didier Rykner
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By Hans Baldung Grien, also at Rumbler, The Body of Christ Carried by Angels to Heaven (ill. 2) is a huge masterpiece, with its composition articulated in an arc around the body of Christ and the rays coming from God the Father barely visible in the sky. This woodcut, sold by H. H. Rumbler of Frankfurt, is one of the most beautiful prints we have ever seen, and shows how close to perfection some of them are to the drawings or paintings of the greatest masters.


3. Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
Manet in bust, c. 1862-1865
Original etching and drypoint - 12.9 x 10.5 cm
Galerie Martinez D.
Photo: Galerie Martinez D.
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Among the great names, in addition to Cranach and Baldung Grien, we will also reproduce, from the French dealer Didier Martinez, a remarkable etching and drypoint portrait of Manet by his friend Edgar Degas (ill. 3). An introduction to the retrospective exhibition soon to open at the Musée d’Orsay devoted to these two artists. It is likely that this print, of which there is another copy in the Metropolitan Museum, is the one described in the November 2018 sale of prints from the Degas estate as "tirage “nature”".


4. Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617)
Oceanus, c. 1589-90
Xylographie - 34.6 x 26.2 cm
C.G. Boerner
Photo: C.G. Boerner
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Hendrick Goltzius, also a leading painter and draughtsman, practised many techniques, including chiaroscuro woodblock, which imitates drawings. This consists of using several blocks of wood with different colours, leaving the parts of the white paper untouched. Several examples can be found at the German gallery C.G. Boerner (ill. 4).


5. Hans Schäufelein (c. 1480/85-c. 1538/40)
Christ on the Cross, c. 1487-1500
Xylography - 23.7 x 15.9 cm
Emanuel von Baeyer London
Photo: Emanuel von Baeyer London
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6. René Boyvin (c. 1525-after 1580)
Hoc Pietatis Opus, 1545-55
Etching - 31.7 x 43.3 cm
Jurjens Fine Art B.V.
Photo: Jurjens Fine Art B.V.
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But alongside the "beacons" of printmaking, many lesser-known artists also produced masterful works. A pupil of Dürer, Hans Schäufelein, is the author of a superb woodcut, a hand-coloured crucifixion, which can be admired at Emanuel von Baeyer, London (ill. 5), while the sixteenth-century Angevin, René Boyvin (ill. 6), interprets with great skill a drawing by Léonard Thiry, himself inspired by a fresco by Rosso Fiorentino in the Francis I gallery of the Château de Fontainebleau. This beautiful print is offered by Jurjens Fine Art, Amsterdam.


7. Gérard Audran (1640-1703), after Charles Le Brun (1619-1690)
The Passage of the Granique, c. 1674
Etching and burin
Galerie Christian Collin
Photo: Galerie Christian Collin
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It is also a set of four interpretative engravings (only two are shown) that the Parisian gallery Christian Collin is exhibiting: these are the famous battles of Alexander by Gérard Audran, after the great paintings of Charles Le Brun kept in the Louvre. We reproduce here Le Passage du Granique[[Photograph unfortunately cropped on the right.]


8. Nicolas-Henri Jacob (1782-1871)
Amazon Head, 1819
Lithograph - 26.5 x 17 cm
Sarah Sauvin Gallery
Photo: Sarah Sauvin Gallery
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9. Nicolas-Henri Jacob (1782-1871)
Amazon Head, 1819
Lithograph - 26.5 x 17 cm
Cleveland, Museum of Art
Photo: Cleveland Museum of Art
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And we will end on a rarity since it is a lithograph in negative, the whites and blacks being reversed. This strange work, a sort of counterpart to the usually known print (ill. 8 and 9) is due to Nicolas-Henri Jacob, with the collaboration of Aloys Senefelder, the inventor of lithography. The annotation, probably in Jacob’s hand, reads: "The inking method has been reversed" and "Study made with Senefelder in my workshop at the Abbey No. 4". It is therefore a very important lithograph for the history of this technique. An amateur was not mistaken, since this sheet was sold on the opening night of the Salon...

Website of the Salon with all the practical information.

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