L'Étang de la Bièvre (Beaver pond).

Born in Valognes, Normandy in 1847, Buhot was orphaned at the age of seven. The library in his small town introduced him to art, and he spent hours poring over rare illustrated books and manuscripts. At the age of 18, Buhot moved to Paris to study painting and drawing at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. By his mid-twenties, he had learned the art of etching and quickly became a successful printmaker. His depictions of Parisian life are atmospheric and enchanting, though precisely executed. Impressionistic details such as the blurring of carriage reflections on the wet road (certainly evident in this print), give the viewer the sense of peering into a memory. Buhot struggled with depression, and ultimately gave up printmaking shortly before his death at the age 50. However, his work is a testament to the power and popularity of his singular perspective.

Buhot was not often a 'one-state' etcher with a final ideal in mind for his prints, and instead enjoyed the challenge of achieving the maximum number of variations that could be drawn from a single plate. Changes from one state to another could be as simple as adding highlights in aquatint, to techniques that change the entire aesthetic of the image, say from day to night, or from calm to stormy weather. He would sometimes rub out sections and rework them; for example, the number of dogs varies in numerous versions of his famous <em>L'hiver de 1879 </em><em>a Paris, </em>also in Te Papa's collection (1969-0002-12). Furthermore, he experimented with every part of the print: the tools, the mediums, the color and type of ink, the paper, even his signature and monograms, and perhaps most famously his 'symphonic margins', scenes along the sides that serve as comments on the main image (see again <em>L'hiver a Paris</em>). Buhot uses these margins to call attention to aspects of the story we might not know. These were sometimes sketched in the original plate, and sometimes added with a separate plate.

By contrast, this intimately scaled print is a straightforward, first state etching. It dates from c. 1872-78 and is thus very early in Buhot's career. It certainly lacks the sophistication of his later works, though there is a disturbingly macabre feature in the foreground where, among the reeds are the skeletal remains of a horse, showing its skull and rib-cage. In the background, we see a horse drinking from the water, and buildings in the distance. The location could be Buhot's native village of Valognes.

See:

Art Museum of Arizona, 'Master Impressions from the UAMA Collections: Félix Hilaire Buhot', http://artmuseum.arizona.edu/events/event/master-impressions-from-the-uama-collections-felix-hilaire-buhot\

'Art of the Day', University of Iowa, https://uima.uiowa.edu/exhibitions/art-of-the-day/new-art-of-the-day-post-14/

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art   September 2017

Foreground, in water, among reeds, the skeletal remains of a horse, showing the skull and rib-cage. In the background, a horse drinking from the water, and buildings in the distance.