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Discover the Parisian print world

etching revival

Etching as an original art form experienced a revival in the period 1850–80, both in France and elsewhere.

A surprising number of artists made original etchings, and a group of fanatical critics and publishers, including Philippe Burty and Alfred Cadart, promoted this type of print in their articles and albums, as the fine-art printmaking technique par excellence.

They joined forces in the Société des Aquafortistes from 1862 to 1867, while in the decade that followed, a new generation of artists began to experiment independently.

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View this artwork
  • Original versus reproduction

    Champions of etching praised the immediacy with which artists could sketch their most intimate thoughts on the etching plate.

    Burty promoted the etching as a ‘drawing in several impressions’. As far as its supporters were concerned, this made the technique more artistic than other forms of printing.

    The revival was not only a plea for etching as an autonomous art form, therefore, but also a reaction against the popularity of graphic reproduction and photography aimed at the mass market.

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  • Experimentation

    The artistic potential of the etching made it a perfect technique for painters who also wanted to make prints, the peintres-graveurs.

    They frequently referred to Rembrandt, who had achieved brilliant effects by printing his own etchings and trying different types of paper.

    The fabrication process — la cuisine — was an essential part of the etching revival: experimentation was actually more important in the 1870s than the result.

    Artists like Félix Buhot and Edgar Degas combined all sorts of techniques to evoke a special atmosphere.

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Further Reading

Gabriel P. Weisberg, The Etching Renaissance in France: 1850-1880, Salt Lake City, 1971.

Elizabeth Helsinger et al., The ‘Writing’ of Modern Life: The Etching Revival in France, Britain, and the U.S., 1850-1940, Chicago, 2008.

Britany Salsbury, ‘The Etching Revival in Nineteenth-Century France’, www.metmuseum.org (accessed september 2014).

201 prints in 'etching revival'

  • b4978M1992
  • p2524S2009
  • p2525S2009
  • p0149V1966
  • p0150V1966
  • p0151V1966
  • p0152V1966
  • p0157V1966
  • p0165V1966
  • p0214V1966
  • p0219V1966
  • p0220V1966
  • p0221V1966
  • p0020V1962
  • p0022V1962
  • p0029V1962
  • p0030V1962
  • p0031V1962
  • p0032V1962
  • p0033V1962
  • p0034V1962
  • p0050V1962
  • p0051V1962
  • p0054V1962
  • p0055V1962
  • p0058V1962
  • p0059V1962
  • p0060V1962
  • p0061V1962
  • p0062V1962
  • p0063V1962
  • p0064V1962
  • p0065V1962
  • p0066V1962
  • p0080V1962
  • p0103V1970
  • p0124V1970
  • p0125V1970
  • p0126V1970
  • p0921S1997
  • p0923S1997
  • p0942S1998
  • p0943S1998
  • p0944S1998
  • p0945S1998
  • p0946S1998
  • p0947S1998
  • p0948S1998
  • p0949S1998
  • p0927S1998
  • p0928S1998
  • p0950S1998
  • p0956S1998
  • p0292V1982
  • p0293V1982
  • p0294V1982
  • p0300V1982
  • p0528M1989
  • p0805M1994
  • p0806M1994
  • p0809M1994
  • p0810M1994
  • p0815M1994
  • p0817M1994
  • p0818M1994
  • p0819M1994
  • p0820M1994
  • p0821M1994
  • p0822M1994
  • p0823M1994
  • p0824M1994
  • p0825M1994
  • p0826M1994
  • p0827M1994
  • p0828M1994
  • p0840S1995
  • p0841S1995
  • p0845S1995
  • p0851S1996
  • p0852S1996
  • p0853S1996
  • p0854S1996
  • p0855S1996
  • p0856S1996
  • p0857S1996
  • p0858S1996
  • p0859S1996
  • p0871S1997
  • p0872S1997
  • p0873S1997
  • p0887N1996
  • p0888N1996
  • p0889N1996
  • p0890N1996
  • p0891N1996
  • p1969S2001
  • p1973S2001
  • p1974S2001
  • p1645V2000
  • p1646V2000
  • p1647V2000
  • p1648V2000
  • p1649V2000
  • p1650V2000
  • p1651V2000
  • p1657V2000
  • p1658V2000
  • p1665V2000
  • p1796S2000
  • p1797S2000
  • p1798S2000
  • p1021V2000
  • p1233V2000
  • p1234V2000
  • p1235V2000
  • p1236V2000
  • p1374V2000
  • p1399V2000
  • p1400V2000
  • p1611V2000
  • p1615V2000
  • p1616V2000
  • p0974S1999
  • p0982S1999
  • p1022V2000
  • p1025V2000
  • p1026V2000
  • p1032V2000
  • p1047V2000
  • p1065V2000
  • p1086V2000
  • p1087V2000
  • p1096V2000
  • p2530S2010
  • p2532S2010
  • p2586S2011
  • p2598S2011
  • p2599S2011
  • p2600S2011
  • p2601S2011
  • p2602S2011
  • p2602-003S2011
  • p2602-004S2011
  • p2602-005S2011
  • p2602-006S2011
  • p2602-007S2011
  • p2602-008S2011
  • p2602-009S2011
  • p2602-010S2011
  • p2611S2011
  • p2620S2011
  • p2625S2011
  • p2626S2011
  • p2627S2011
  • p2628S2011
  • p2629S2011
  • p2630S2011
  • p2631S2011
  • pa0002
  • p2709S2013
  • p2710S2013
  • p2711S2013
  • p2713S2013
  • p2716S2013
  • p2717S2013
  • p2726S2013
  • p2733S2013
  • p2734S2013
  • p2762S2015
  • p2765-004S2015
  • p2766-001S2015
  • p2768-003S2015
  • p2794S2016
  • p2795S2016
  • p2800S2017
  • p2801S2017
  • p2802S2017
  • p2803S2017
  • p2804S2017
  • p2820S2017
  • p2762-001S2015
  • p2762-002S2015
  • p2762-003S2015
  • p2762-004S2015
  • p2762-005S2015
  • p2762-006S2015
  • p2762-007S2015
  • p2762-008S2015
  • p2762-009S2015
  • p2762-010S2015
  • p2762-011S2015
  • p2762-012S2015
  • p2762-013S2015
  • p2762-014S2015
  • p2762-015S2015
  • p2762-016S2015
  • p3056S2021
  • p3057S2021
  • p3058S2021

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