Les Enfants Le Gall
Adolphe-Marie Beaufrere (1876-1960), Les Enfants Le Gall, drypoint, 1927, signed in pencil lower right and numbered lower left margins (13/45) [also dated and monogrammed in the plate]. Reference: Laran 208, Morane 27-04, only state. In very good condition, with margins, printed on a ivory/orange laid Japan paper, 7 5/8 x 6 1/2, the sheet 10 x 8 3/4 inches, archival matting.
A fine impression, the black contrasting warmly with the ivory/orange paper.
With the Sagot blindstamp.
Beaufrere was born at Quimperle, in Brittany, and though he traveled widely he re-connected with this area throughout his life. As a teenager he decided that he wanted to become an artist and he traveled to Paris where, shortly after his arrival, he encountered the eminent Gustave Moreau, who took him on as a student. Beaufrere began printmaking in about 1904, with some woodcuts, but soon got into etching and engraving. He began showing his prints, with some success, but after his marriage in 1905, and with the urging of his new wife, moved out of Paris and back to Brittany. This move had a mixed effect on his career – contacts with other artists became fewer, but he did maintain gallery relationships, and the French countryside and it’s inhabitants – such as the woman, children and cows in Les Enfants – would provide a continuing source of inspiration.
During the Great War Beaufrere served in the infantry, and had few opportunities to make art. After the War Beaufrere experienced great success, both in France and the US. He received many awards (including Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1939, nominated by his friend Jean-Emile Laboureur). And throughout his life, despite various maladies including eye problems in the ’40’s and later, he continued to make prints as well as paintings and watercolors.