Gaston La Touche - Aux Flancs Du Vase - Etching

Gaston LA TOUCHE (Saint-Cloud, 1854 – Paris, 1913)
Aux flancs du vase
1906
Etching and aquatint on wove paper
18.9x14 cm (subject) / 35x24.3 cm (sheet) / 40x30 cm (framed)
Signed in bottom right in the plate “Gaston La Touche”
Reference: IFF 6
Stains and halos, particularly in the margins, very barely visible with the frame and the mat (return possible in Boulogne-Billancourt before purchase).

This print served as a frontispiece to the collection of poems by Albert Samain (1858-1900) Aux flancs du vase published in 1906 by the Société du Livre d'art, with a limited edition of 100 copies. Our proof bears the stamp of Gaston La Touche's workshop sale on the back and could be a trial proof, kept by the artist due to a problem at the time of printing because a line of green ink protrudes beyond the composition in the upper part of the bowl.
It is an etching and aquatint, this second technique making it possible to obtain the green tint with a rendering close to an ink wash. Although he claimed to be a disciple of Félix Bracquemond (1833-1914), representing himself observing the distinguished engraver at work in his painting Bracquemond and his disciple kept at the Musée d'Orsay, Gaston La Touche only tried engraving on rare occasions.
The etchings illustrating Aux flancs du vase were prepared by watercolors, which were exhibited in June 1906. “Gaston La Touche understood the pagan fable without false erudition, with exquisite sensitivity” [1] noted the critic . Close to his plastic universe, the poems of Albert Samain provided him with the subjects of compositions in which we find certain elements which recur as a leitmotif throughout his work, such as nymphs, swans, fauns and bathers.

[1] Anonymous, “Aquarelles de M. La Touche”, The New-York herald, June 2, 1906, p.5.