35. Jacques Beltrand
(1874 - ?)

Le Laboureur (Vallée du Petit-Morin)

(click on image to print)
Beltrand, Le Laboureur

Le Laboureur (Vallée du Petit-Morin)

Chiaroscuro woodcut, 1907, 378 x 352 mm., B.N. Inv. 17, inscribed with title and dated by the artist. Jacques was one of a family of woodcut artists, a father Tony and four sons. Although he did much fine wood engraving, influenced by Lepère as well as by his father, here he is clearly looking back to 16th-17th-century chiaroscuros with no pretense toward realistic colors, but taking full advantage of the working toward light and dark from, in this case, two middle tones. The natural tone of the paper provides the highlights, just as it did in the quite different subject matter of early chiaroscuros. There is a long pencil dedication from the artist dated 1912 but, with all the hand-done annotations, one wonders why he never actually signed the print. Fine impression on a large sheet of wove paper; some dirt and a few small stains in the margins.