Philibert-Louis Debucourt

Le Café Ambulant Fenaille 494 etching and aquatint, exceptionally with contemporary hand coloring ("à la poupée" according to Maurice Fenaille), 1821, on medium-heavy wove paper, a very fine impression of the second state (of two), with small margins, the upper margin split and reinforced along the plateline, some slight overall soiling and mat-staining on the verso, otherwise in quite good condition P. 298 x 389 mm  S. 315 x 400 mm.

Originally admittted under the Ancien Regime to the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in 1774, and a master of color printmaking with hundreds of works to his credit, Philibert-Louis Debucourt (1755-1832) was something of a survivor, who continued making prints throughout the French Revolution and well into the Bourbon Restoration.

His long-standing comittment to chronicling/satirizing his often tumultuous times is evident here.  This is one of his original compositions from the Restoration, showing a representative cross-section of city life, gathering around an itinerant coffee stand.

The present impression, with contemporary hand coloring, is quite rare; those we have seen in public collections are regularly monochrome. *

* Cf. the impression from the Rothschild Collection in the Musée du Louvre 
(http://art.rmngp.fr/fr/library/artworks/philibert-louis-debucourt_le-cafe-ambulant_aquatinte_eau-forte)

as well as that of the Clark Art Institute
(http://www.clarkart.edu/Collection/5839)