Finding aid for Messe en Bretagne (Mass in Brittany), [ca. 1900-1910] 2022.PR.19
Karen Meyer-Roux
Special Collections
2022
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
Business Number: (310) 440-7390
Fax Number: (310) 440-7780
reference@getty.edu
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections
Title: Messe en Bretagne (Mass in Brittany)
Creator:
Dezaunay, Emile, 1854-1938
Creator:
Delâtre, Eugène, 1864-1938
Creator:
Sagot, Edmond, 1857-1917
Identifier/Call Number: 2022.PR.19
Physical Description:
12 prints
Date (inclusive): [ca. 1900-1910]
Physical Location: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the
catalog record for this collection. Click here for the
access policy .
Abstract: The twelve sheets are working proofs of Dezaunay's etching
Messe en Bretagne (Mass in Brittany). Included are impressions with notations by the publisher, Edmond Sagot, and by the printer, Eugène Delâtre, as well as proofs
from each color plate and proofs from the canceled plates. The proofs document the process of color printmaking using multiple
plates.
Language of Material: Collection material is in French.
Émile Dezaunay,
Messe en Bretagne (Mass in Brittany), [ca. 1900-1910], The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2022.PR.19.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2022pr19
Scope and Content of Collection
Messe en Bretagne (Mass in Brittany) takes place in front of a small church and within the gates of a cemetery. Lively colors and the blue sky suggest warm weather.
Women wearing the traditional headdress "Giz Fouen" are seated on a bench, their heads lowered, and their backs turned to
the viewer. In the background, at left, two women stand in front of the side door of the church.
The print was based on a watercolor and gouache made by Dezaunay. The twelve working proofs include impressions with notations
by the publisher, Edmond Sagot, and by the printer, Eugène Delâtre, as well as proofs from each color plate and proofs from
the canceled plates. In one impression from four plates in four colors, there are numerous instructions for the printer, Eugène
Delâtre, regarding the color inks. One sheet is a proof before steel facing, another is identified as "Bon à tirer," meaning
ready to be printed. In one proof, the printer lists the total number of impressions made from the four plates. The set includes
cancellation proofs, a guarantee that no further impressions could be pulled from the plates.
The working proofs belonged to Edmond Sagot and then to his successor, the firm Sagot-Le Garrec, Paris, whose name is derived
from the marriage of Sagot's daughter to Maurice Le Garrec. Later the proofs were acquired by the Galerie Arsène Bonafous-Murat,
Paris, and then by Didier Martinez Estampes, Paris.
Sources consulted:
Musée départemental, Breton, Quimper, no. 2016.6.1
Grivel, Marianne et al.,
De Pissarro à Picasso : l'eau-forte en couleurs en France, no. 79
The French painter and printmaker Émile (Émile-Alfred-Marie) Dezaunay was born in Nantes in 1854 into a family of wealthy
merchants. His mother was a first cousin of the writer, Jules Verne. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris under
Jules-Élie Delaunay, a painter from Nantes, and under Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. While in Paris, he was initiated to printmaking
by Eugène Delâtre. In 1890 he traveled to Pont-Aven with a friend, Maxime Maufra, where they met Paul Gauguin who had a profound
influence on their work. Beginning in 1892, he frequented other artists at Maufra's studio at the Bateau Lavoir in Montmartre
and later became one of the founding members of the Salon d'Automne. After 1909, he returned to Nantes and lived there until
his death in 1938.
The French printmaker and printer Eugène Delâtre, the son of the printer Auguste Delâtre, issued prints by Félix Bracquemond,
Auguste Brouet, Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse- Lautrec, Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen, and Pablo Picasso. He played a fundamental
role in the development of color etching in late 19th-century France. He used several methods to produce color prints, the
à la poupée method in which inks of different colors are applied on a plate using a ball-shaped wad of cloth, and color etching
au repérage using multiple plates.
Acquired in 2022.
Impressions of Dezaunay's
Messe en Bretagne (Mass in Brittany), are at:
Musée départemental, Breton, Quimper, no. 2016.6.1
Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers, no. 83.010.063
Relating to the 1898 sale of Dezaunay's works, see:
Catalogue des tableaux, aquarelles, dessins par E. Dezaunay. Préface d'Arsène Alexandre. Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 25 mars 1898. The preface of the catalogue also gives a lively report of
Dezaunay's personality.
Works engraved, printed, or formerly owned by Eugène Delâtre, which are held at the Getty Research Institute, include:
Eugène Delâtre,
[Autoportrait dans l'atelier], ca. 1894, Accession no. 2005.PR.29
Eugène Delâtre,
[At the Café-Concert], ca. 1895, Accession no. 2012.PR.8
Das Mappenwerk der Insel herausgegeben von Otto Julius Bierbaum, Alfred Walter Heymel und Rudolf Alexander Schröder, 1900. Accession no. 2008.PR.22
Auguste Brouet,
L'amateur, [1896], Accession no. 2013.PR.7, 2013.PR.8, 2013.PR.9
Paul Gauguin,
[La femme aux figues], 1899, Accession no. 2011.PR.31
Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen,
[Gare de l'Est], [1916-1917], Accession no. 2007.PR.33
Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen,
[Soldiers in a Trench], [ca. 1917], Accession no. 2007.PR.34
De l'Yser au Vieil Armand : dix eaux-fortes originales par L. Grandgérard. Paris: Imprimerie E. Delâtre, 1916. Accession no. 2008.PR.25
The records of the publisher Edmond Sagot are at the INHA in Paris:
Fonds galerie Sagot-Le Garrec, INHA, Archives 086.
Letters or works published by Edmond Sagot, which are held at the Getty Research Institute, include:
Félix Bracquemond,
L'arc-en-ciel (The Rainbow), 1893-1897, Accession no. 2012.PR.24
Helleu, Paul,
Ed. Sagot estampes et affiches illustrées 39 bis rue de Châteaudun, Paris,, Accession no. 2001.PR.35
Alphonse-François Lotz-Brissonneau,
L'œuvre gravé de Auguste Lepère. Paris : E. Sagot, 1905, ID no. 1560-628
Alphonse-François Lotz-Brissonneau,
Nomenclature des gravures sur bois, eaux-fortes et lithographies exécutées à ce jour par J.-E. Laboureur, Nantes ; Paris : Chez Sagot, 1909, ID no. 90-B5220
Edmond Sagot letter to Clément-Janin, 1911 in: Clément-Janin letters received, 1904-1952, Accession no. 860786.
Karen Meyer-Roux wrote this finding aid in September 2022.
Open for use by qualified researchers.
The first four proofs are annotated by the publisher, Edmond Sagot, or by the printer, Eugène Delâtre. The other proofs are
impressions made from three, two, or one plate.
The prints were digitized in 2022 and the images are available online: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/2022pr19
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Clothing and dress
Piety
Prints -- Technique
Women -- France -- Brittany
Brittany (France) -- Social life and customs
Prints (visual works) -- France -- 20th century
Color prints (prints) -- France -- 20th century
Printers' proofs -- France -- 20th century
Messe en Bretagne (Mass in Brittany), Series I. [ca. 1900-1910]
Messe en Bretagne (Mass in Brittany), [ca. 1900-1910] (digitized version)
box 1*, folder 1
Proof with notations for the printer 2022.PR.19-1
The proof is printed from four plates in four colors. There are numerous instructions in pencil in the margins for the printer,
Eugène Delâtre, regarding the color inks.
In the left margin: Les robes sont trop bleues, il faut un violet / Le ton rouge pas venu sur le terrain.
In the top margin: Apaiser le bleu / Jaune à salir un peu avec le vermillon / Salir avec le vermillon / Apaiser le bleu.
In the right margin: Ton de bleu trop violent / trop jaune colorer avec le rouge / Vermillon plus intense / Trop jaune colorer
avec le vermillon.
box 1*, folder 2
Proof before steel facing 2022.PR.19-2
The proof is printed from four plates in four colors. The pencil notations refer to the preservation process ("aciérage")
by which the copper plate, which is a soft metal, is covered with a thin layer of hard metal, such as steel.
Annotated: Ep. d'essai avant l'aciérage / X à mettre dans le tirage.
box 1*, folder 3
Bon à tirer 2022.PR.19-3
"Bon à tirer" signifies that the plate is ready for printing. The proof from four plates in four colors is signed and annotated
by the publisher, Edmond Sagot, who indicates that the edition will consist of fifty impressions. There are instructions in
pencil in the margins for the printer, Eugène Delâtre, regarding the color inks.
At lower right: Bon à tirer à Cinquante épreuves / Ed. Sagot.
In the left margin: Foncer un peu le creux de la porte.
In the top margin: Baisser le bleu au bas du vitrail / Baisser le rouge.
Numbered: 3.
box 1*, folder 4
Proof from canceled plate 2022.PR.19-4
The proof is from the canceled plate in black ink. At left of the sheet is a list in brown ink, which is signed by the printer,
Eugène Delâtre. The list gives the number of impressions that were printed from the yellow, red, blue, and black plates, and
from combinations of two, three, and four plates.
Inscription at left: Il a été tiré de cette planche / 2 épreuves de la planche jaune / 2 épreuves id. rouge / 2 épreuves id.
bleue / 2 épreuves id. noire / 2 épreuves des planches jaune et rouge / 2 épreuves en 3 couleurs / 5 épreuves d'état / 50
épreuves 4 couleurs. / Certifié conforme / Eug. Delâtre.
box 1*, folder 5
box 1*, folder 6
Proof printed from two plates, in two colors, red and yellow 2022.PR.19-6
box 1*, folder 7
Proof printed from yellow plate 2022.PR.19-7
box 1*, folder 8
box 1*, folder 9
Proof printed from red plate 2022.PR.19-9
box 1*, folder 10
box 1*, folder 11