Yale Exhibition Reveals Innovative Period In History Of Printmaking

NEW HAVEN — “Colorful Impressions: The Printmaking Revolution in Eighteenth Century France,” on view at the Yale University Art Gallery until May 4, will present images from arguably the most groundbreaking period in the history of color printmaking.

During the 18th Century in France, newly invented engraving and etching methods were joined with novel ways of printing a single image from multiple plates. For the first time, full color prints could be created from the three basic colors — red, yellow and blue – plus black. Within just a few decades, thousands of images were produced, including some of the most complex and beautiful color prints ever made.

Multiple reproductions of a painting or drawing could be made, allowing the middle class to afford the “same” work(s) of art as their aristocratic counterparts. This burgeoning print market included a wide variety of subjects, portraits, landscapes, allegories and genre scenes, as well as more mundane items, such as travel illustrations, textile and wallpaper motifs, maps and button covers.

The artists whose designs were reproduced by printmakers are among the most famous of the 18th Century, and the exhibition includes works by Jean-Antoine Watteau, François Boucher, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Jean-Honoré Fragonard and Hubert Robert.

The gallery’s presentation of “Colorful Impressions,” organized by the National Gallery of Art, includes more than 100 images, many of which are presented in multiple impressions or alongside related drawings. Most of the works in the exhibition reflect the carefree spirit of the ancien régime, an era of self-indulgence among the upper classes before the French Revolution in 1789; however, the exhibition also evokes the gradually changing spirit of Eighteenth Century France during this time.

Highlights of the exhibition include Jakob Christoffel Le Blon’s color mezzotint portrait of Louis XV, 1739, and four color proofs from his “Portrait of Anthony van Dyck”; Jacques-Fabien Gautier Dagoty’s “anatomical angel”; Louis-Marin Bonnet’s great pastel-manner “Tête de Flore (Head of Flora),” 1769, in five different impressions, and his so-called “English prints” — partially printed with gold leaf; ten progressive proofs for Charles-Melchior Descourtis’ “Noce de village (Village Wedding),” 1785; and ten masterful and delightful prints by the last of the great color printmakers, Philibert-Louis Debucourt.

About two-thirds of the objects on display belong to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. The rest are lent from the family collection of Ivan E. Phillips.

Related programming includes free gallery talks on the exhibition.

On Tuesday, February 12, at 4 pm, there will be a lecture, “Reproducing the Rococo,” by Alicia Weisberg-Roberts, postdoctoral research associate, Yale Center for British Art. On Tuesday, February 19, at 4 pm, “Selling Color Prints in 18th Century Paris” will be presented by Kristel Smentek, adjunct professor in the history of decorative arts and design, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.

On Tuesday, February 26, at 4 pm, Stéphane Roy, postdoctoral research associate, department of prints and drawings, Yale Center for British Art, will speak on “France and England Showing Their Colors: Rivalry, Emulation and Printmaking Innovation in the 18th Century.” And on Wednesday, February 27, at 12:20 pm, “True Colors: Genius and Invention in French Printmaking of the 18th Century” will be the topic for Margaret Morgan Grasselli, curator of Old Master drawings, National Gallery, Washington, D.C.

Yale University Art Gallery is at 1111 Chapel Street. For information, call 203-432-0600 or visit www.artgallery.yale.edu.