As part of the Normandie Impressionniste festival, the Caen Fine-Art Gallery is presenting selection of impressionnist prints from the National Library of France's Department of Prints and Photography – some 120 works forming a unique collection.
This exhibition of impressionist prints -the first such event in France since the 1974 exhibition held by the National Library of France- gives you the chance to discover or rediscover the great names of Impressionnism such as Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Mary Cassatt and Auguste Renoir, but also others artists who, although lesser known, played a decisive role in the renewal of interest in original prints. These include Félix Bracquemond, Henri Guérard, Count Lepic, Félix Buhot, Auguste Delâtre and Marcellin Desboutin.
The exceptional renewal in the themes and forms taken by prints between the 1860s and the 1890s is the source of the modern print, the fruit of intense experimentation and constituting an art form in its own right. During this period, punctuated by the creation of the Société des Aquafortistes (Society of Etchers) in 1862 and the eight impressionist exhibitions organised between 1874 and 1886, technical exploration became undeniably an end in itself.
Over and above the subjects chosen, we can admire the technical freedom of Manet’s etchings, the subtlety of the combined processes adopted by Degas and Pissarro, the sincerity of the studies engraved by Cézanne, Guillaumin and Van Ryssel, the delicacy of Renoir's and Berthe Morisot's drypoints, as well as the shading effects obtained by Whistler and the lightness of Mary Cassatt's aquatints. Various practices, including series of states of the same plate,individual inking processes, hand highlighting and limited editions, transformed the print into a rare object. The pursuit of the single proof reached its peak with the monotype, a unique printed image, obtained without
engraving. Subjects for research included lighting, texture and shading as well as how to combine processes. New techniques enabled printmakers to render the shifting appearance of the landscape at different times and seasons and with varying atmospheric conditions. They gave portraits and personal scenes spontaneity and an unfinished character not seen before. The age, so conducive to experimentation, also saw the emergence of colour printmaking and a renewed interest in lithography.
