Jean-François Raffaëlli (France, 1850-1924)
‘Boulevard des Italiens’ c. 1908
drypoint etching in color, 157/200
(impression) 17 ¼” high x 20 ¼” wide
(sheet) 20 ¾” high x 22 ¾” wide
(framed) 29 7/8” high x 30 5/8” wide
Markings: numbered and signed in pencil lower right, ‘No. 157 J.F. Raphaelli’; good wide-margins
Condition: Excellent, framed behind glass and ready for display.
Catalogue Notes: The Boulevard des Italiens figures into a few of his artworks, of them this is likely the best known being housed in major museum and gallery collections including the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C..
Artist Biography: “Associated with the Impressionist movement and best known for scenes of Parisienne life and landmarks, Jean-François Raffaëlli was a Parisienne painter, sculptor, and engraver, who was born in 1850 and died in 1924. During youth he was a chorister who acted under the name of ‘Raffa’ at the opera houses and churches whilst studying at the Paris School of Fine Arts and under Jean-Léon Gérôme. He exhibited at the Salons and was friendly with the artists down at the Guerbois Café (Manet, Forain, Proust, André, Fantin-Latour, etc..) and Edgar Degas and Albert Bartholomé would witness the marriage of his daughter Jeanne in 1877. He would contribute to several newspapers including Le Chat Noir (1885) and Le Courrier Francais (1866). It was Degas who requested, much to the disappointment of Monet, Gauguin and Caillebotte, that Raffaëlli would participate in the Impressionist exhibitions of 1881 (40 works) and 1882 (33 works). He would go on to obtain an honorable mention at the Salon des artistes français of 1885; named Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1880; a gold medal at the Universal Exhibition of 1889; and promoted to Office of the Legion of Honor in 1906. This success garnered his spot in intellectual life and he became known for hosting a popular salon that included Mirbeau, Barres, Clemenceau, Rodin and Zola. Stylistically Raffaëlli started out depicting social realist scenes, then under the influence of Degas and Lautrec he would take on the wilder city life and finally he evolved under the influence of Berthe Morisot to highlight the possibilities of the city without the popular despair, and it is here that his artwork would flourish and it is said that, although a vain man who said he was “higher than Raphael,” Raffaëlli was the inventor of the suburban landscape. In 1904 he founded the Society of Original Color Engravings and organized an annual salon for Georges Petit for twenty years. As for his personal life he marched in the regiments during the war of 1870 and attended Bloody Week which he would record in sketches; in 1879 he married Rachel Héran (1849-1924) whom, along with their daughter Jeanne, survived the fire at the Bazar de la Charité. After 1915 he cloistered and devoted his focus to engraving.” (Source: Wikipedia)
