Félix Bracquemond

Félix Bracquemond was a leading member of the French artistic and literary avant-garde from the 1850s on. He first made a name for himself as a self-taught printmaker following his successful showing at the 1855 Exposition Universelle. Credited with leading the 19th-century etching revival in France, Bracquemond as a master etcher worked with artists including Ingres, Courbet, Millet, Manet, Corot, Daubigny, Rodin, and Chéret. Altogether he produced over eight hundred plates, comprising portraits, landscapes, scenes of contemporary life, and bird-studies, besides numerous interpretations of other artists’ paintings. Bracquemond was the husband of Marie Bracquemond, a core member of the Impressionist group in 1870s Paris who occasionally worked with Félix in the ceramics studio.

Thanks in part to these expansive artistic connections and his experimental spirit, he became one of the first and most influential proponents of Japanese art in Europe after he acquired one of the first copies of Hokusai's Manga (1813), a thirteen-volume collection of sketches filled with drawings, which he introduced to the artists of his wide-ranging circle. Bracquemond went on to learn ceramic enamel decoration, ultimately becoming director of Charles Haviland's Auteuil studio in Paris from 1873 to 1880. He designed not only ceramics, but also furniture, gold and silver jewelry, bookbindings, and tapestry, often returning to Japanese-inspired imagery and approaches.

Bracquemond’s work is in major art collections throughout the world. Pieces from this specific service are in many great collections, including the Musée d’Orsay, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Smithsonian’s Cooper Hewitt Museum of Design, and the Art Institute of Chicago.