Crépuscule avec meules
Camille Pissarro
Crépuscule avec meules
aquatint & etching
1879
An original Camille Pissarro aquatint & etching print.
(Twilight with Haystacks)
1879
Original aquatint with etching printed in black ink on Japan paper.
Signed with the artist’s estate monogram stamp (Lugt 613.f) in brown ink in the margin lower right.
A richly printed, luminous impression of Delteil’s third and final state, printed after the horizon on the left was more clearly defined and the addition of contrasting highlights to the trees, from the edition of only 10 on this paper, printed in 1920 (there were 40 additional impressions printed on another paper for an overall edition of 50 in this edition, apart from approximately 18 impressions in all three states printed during the artist’s lifetime).
Catalog: Delteil 23 iii/iii; Leymarie P22
Size Image: 4 1/8 x 7 1/16 inches
Sheet Size: 13 7/8 x 12 ¾ inches
If one could characterize a typical Impressionist print, the “Crépuscule avec meules” would be an outstanding example. The artist has created a tour de force of luminosity which conveys an extraordinary implication of color and light.
The composition was realized in three states. Initially, a rhythm of forms including two small figures, a curved road, double haystacks, and a row of trees on the horizon were all established by means of liquid aquatint (grains of rosin mixed in ether of alcohol), that literally puddle into abstract shapes. Additional coarser aquatint grains then created different textures and deeper tones. In the third state, as here, fine etched and drypoint lines clarified forms, especially the imperfectly silhouetted trees. Touches of acid brushed directly onto the sky heighten the effect of scudding clouds. Although all the components enjoy the same pictorial weight, the uneven aquatint and acid effects set of a delicate and shimmering balance between the recognizable and the illusionistic.
