Armand Seguin

Pêcheurs de Goémons (Seaweed Fishermen) Field, Strauss, and Wagstaff 85 zincograph, printed in black, circa 1895, on fine tan wove paper, mounted onto a heavier carton with three small points of glue, with small margins, the sheet trimmed somewhat irregularly, though well away from the borderline, some overall soiling and a few unobtrusive filiform traces of rubbing in the image, visible only in raking light, otherwise in very good condition Provenance: a private Breton collection P. 202 x 288 mm. S. 220 x 305 mm.

The print's title comes from Field, Strauss, and Wagstaff and relates to a Breton practice of harvesting seaweed (Fucus and Laminaria, often called wrack in English), which had a variety of uses in the late 19th century.

Seguin's intent may however have been somewhat more complex and the figures in the foreground are curious: there is apparently the sombre figure of a woman in dark dress with a traditional coiffe, next to a young naked woman, seated and bent to the right, who appears to be embracing a large white bale of what has been considered to be a sack of the harvested wrack.  On closer examination, one may also discern a male figure leaning left, toward the woman, though only his head and shoulder still remain visible.  Was the plate still in progress, Seguin seeking to refine the foreground scene?  As there has never been a formal edition of this print, is the work unfinished?  The question remains open...

It should be noted that we believe the inital state of the plate was marred by several large discoidal blemishes of what was probably an ink solvent that fixed onto the plate, notably visible to the left in the two known impressions** that we have examined (BNF and Josefowitz Collection sale at Christie's); another appears faintly below the naked woman and a third within the image at the far right corner.  In our impression these first two have been deftly cleaned from the margin, though the last one remains visible.  It may be hypothesized that the blank white field of the "bale" was also a effort to revise the composition while effacing another large solvent blemish misprinting, a trace of which may be seen down across the male figure in the BNF and Josefwitz impressions. 

In any case, the present impression is of the utmost rarity, and aside from the two mentioned here, we have never seen any other, either in museum collections or on the market.