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Rue du Gros-Horloge
à Rouen
Delteil 54,
Leymarie 43
etching with aquatint,
1884-5, on medium-fine lavender laid paper, with a fragmentary
watermark in Roman capitals (PL BAS), a very fine and fresh impression
of the third state (of three)*, from the posthumous 1923 edition
of 15, with the "C.P." wetstamp (L. 613e), numbered
("7/15"), with full margins, deckle edges right and
below, traces of hinges on the reverse, in excellent condition
P. 192x146mm., S. 350x240mm.
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Provenance: the Henri
M. Petiet collection, with the HMP wetstamp on the reverse (not
cited in Lugt)
According to Ludovic-Rodo
Pissarro, "The Rouen series is one of the most engaging he
ever did, depicting the narrow crowded streets of the old city
crowned by its beautiful cathedral."**
Late in 1883 Pissarro
travelled to Rouen and executed this remarkable series, of which
the present print is one of the classics, a masterful study in
the balance of light and shade, highlighted detail and tone field,
receding from the foreground, animated by two strolling figures,
to the background, culminating in the arched clock tower and belfry.
* Delteil notes only
a dozen contemporary impressions of this state, all "artist
proofs," and the 15 impressions from the 1923 edition, all
stamped and numbered, after which the plate was cancelled.
** Ludovic-Rodo Pissarro,
"The Etched and Lithographed Work of Camille Pissarro",
in Print Collector's Quarterly IX, pp. 275-301, 1922.
