Ba 15

The Antique Dealer

etching (1904)

Piles of second-hand pieces of furniture and worn out housegoods clutter the doorstep, climb up the walls and invade the shop of the antique dealer. Peering through the open door, we make out slightly more inviting decoration items. Sitting at a panneled pulpit, the dealer is absorbed in reading one of his old books.

5^th state, 89 mm × 89 mm.
IFF 2.2, BN.

With the letter Grégoire, 3 rue de Maistre.

Priv. coll.

The first state was printed at 25 on japanese and 30 on laid paper and some trial proofs. The plate was later cut and used for address cards, for which a cross-bar loaded with wallets was added to the foreground. It is sketched in black stone on a proof of an intermediate state between the first and the second, at BPL. Finally, a proof of the very last state of the very tired plate, with the letter erased again, was included in the first edition of the book dedicated to Brouet as illustrator in the collection Les Artistes du Livre (Hesse 1930).

3^rd state, 133 mm × 87 mm.
IFF 2.2, BN, BPL 4, aut., EB 29.

With the letter Delâtre, 87 rue Lepic, Tirages en Noir et en Couleurs, Leçons Particulières and the cross added in the foreground.

Priv. coll.

2^nd state, 133 mm × 87 mm.
Printed at 25 impressions.
Boutitie 69, BPL 4, EB 29.

Plate cut and partially erased. Retouching masks the deletion. Only the antique dealer is visible. With the cross in the foreground but before the letter of the Delâtre address card, circa 1906.

Artist's family

1^st state, 180 mm × 130 mm.
Printed at 55 impressions and 5 ou 6 state proofs.
Boutitie 68, BPL 4, BPL 13, Universität Osnabrück, auteur, EB 29, EG 13, PGF 1909.

The plate was crossed out after the printing.

Priv. coll.