Woman with Bellows
Boutet - Woman with Bellows
Henri Boutet (1851-1919), [Femme, Woman with Bellows] , c. 1890, drypoint, signed and numbered (N. 9) in pencil lower right and with the artist’s red stamp (Lugt 1295a) [also signed in the plate]. In good condition, with wide/full margins (brown at edges), 7 1/2 x 5, the sheet 12 1/4 x 8 3/4.
A fine impression, with substantial burr from the drypoint work.
Boutet was one of the most talented of the Belle Epoque artists. He made a number of small drypoint portraits of women in tiny editions, or women in various Japonisme related postures. These prints, carefully printed, wiped and signed, are rather rarely encountered today, although reproductions of Boutet’s work are quite common. He became popular as an illustrator for magazines such as the Paris-Croquis and Le Courrier Francais, and later founded publications including La Revue Artistique. He was well known at the turn of the century as “le Petit maître au corset” – the small master of the corset.
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