The twelve sheets are working proofs of Dezaunay's etching Messe en Bretagne (Mass in Brittany), which document the process of color printmaking using multiple plates. 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 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.

12 prints

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