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Félix Bracquemond , French, 1833-1914

Title

The Terrace of the Villa Brancas

Date1876

MediumEtching and drypoint with aquatint on laid paper

Dimensions

26.2 × 36 cm

Sheet: 30.5 × 43 cm

SignedBottom right: Bracquemond/1876/ L’ART

Credit LinePurchased, 2024

Object numberNGI.2024.7

DescriptionFélix Bracquemond’s print depicts his wife, Marie Bracquemond (1840-1916), drawing her sister Louise Quivoron on the terrace of their home in Sèvres in 1876. Marie Bracquemond was one of three women artists who exhibited at the Impressionist exhibitions. She exhibited at the fourth (1879), fifth (1880), and eighth (1889) exhibitions.

Impressionist artists are renowned for using friends and family members as models. This is especially so for women Impressionists who had relatively restricted access to professional models and social spaces. Louise Quivoron features in many of Marie Bracquemond’s paintings including Le Goûter (1880; Petit Palais, Paris) and Sur la terrasse à Sèvres (1880, Musée du Petit Palais, Geneva). This is a rare contemporary image of an Impressionist woman artist working from life en plein air.

Félix Bracquemond was a painter, printmaker, and ceramics designer. He was closely associated with artists in the Impressionist circle and exhibited at the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874. He features in Henri Fantin-Latour’s group portrait Hommage à Delacroix (1864 Musée d'Orsay). Bracquemond was a prolific printmaker and made over 800 prints in various styles. He was a founder of the Society of Painter-Engravers in France. Bracquemond was highly knowledgeable about Japanese printmaking. He is renowned for introducing motifs from Japanese art and design to French ceramics and held roles at firms such as Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres and Charles F Haviland, Limoges.
InscriptionBottom left: Imp Salmon/ La terrasse.
ProvenanceOld Master Prints XIII, Izegem, Belgium; Purchased, 2024Exhibition HistoryWomen Impressionists, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 27 June - 6 October 2024