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Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Paysage au Tunnel, etching, 1920, signed in pencil lower left, numbered (19/55 ep) lower right and also titled lower left edge. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 195, second state (of 2), from the edition of 55. In very good condition, printed on a cream wove paper with deckle edges, the full sheet with wide margins, 7 7/8 x 9, the sheet 11 x 16 1/8 inches.
A fine impression, printed in a dark brownish/black ink.
This is similar to the composition of Paysage au Butte Chaumont (L 205) but it a more dramatic etching (here along the Loire, near Oudon).
Contemporary commentators noted that in etchings such as Paysage au Tunnel Laboureur takes an aesthetic position rather opposite to Whistler and the swarm of acolytes attempting to replicate Whistler’s impressionistic approach, using either plate tones or many detailed lines to achieve shading and nuance – here the lines are well defined, vigourous, dramatic, and the composition and figures have a modernist/cubist quality.
