Le Port de Douarnenez (Port of Douarnenez) No. 14 from the series Le Beau Pays de Bretagne (The Beautiful Countryside of Brittany), 1898–1917
Item
Title
Le Port de Douarnenez (Port of Douarnenez)
No. 14 from the series Le Beau Pays de Bretagne (The Beautiful Countryside of Brittany), 1898–1917
No. 14 from the series Le Beau Pays de Bretagne (The Beautiful Countryside of Brittany), 1898–1917
Creator
Henri Rivière
French, 1864–1951
French, 1864–1951
Date
1911
Materials
Color lithograph
Measurements
image: 9 x 14 in. (22.9 x 35.5 cm), sheet, folded: 17 x 24 in. (43.3 x 61 cm), sheet, unfolded: 18-1/2 x 24 in. (47 x 62 cm)
Description
Henri Rivière is perhaps best known for his association with the Chat Noir, the famous cabaret opened in the Montmartre district of Paris by Rodolphe Salis in 1881. While still a teenager, Rivière edited and contributed to the Chat Noir’s weekly journal, and in 1886 he introduced a form of shadow theater—what he called Ombres chinoises, or Chinese Shadows—that remained immensely popular until the nightclub’s closing in 1897.
Rivière was also a printmaker. Inspired, as were so many of his colleagues during the latter decades of the nineteenth century, by the strong outlines and broad unmodulated areas of color discovered in Japanese woodblock prints, he produced nearly a dozen sets of brilliantly colored woodcuts and lithographs depicting the French landscape. The sheet presented here, featuring a view of the coastal town of Douarnenez, belongs to a series of twenty lithographs executed between 1898 and 1917—one per year—that capture the artist’s deep appreciation of the Brittany region. After completing the series, Rivière retired as a professional artist, at the age of 52.
Rivière was also a printmaker. Inspired, as were so many of his colleagues during the latter decades of the nineteenth century, by the strong outlines and broad unmodulated areas of color discovered in Japanese woodblock prints, he produced nearly a dozen sets of brilliantly colored woodcuts and lithographs depicting the French landscape. The sheet presented here, featuring a view of the coastal town of Douarnenez, belongs to a series of twenty lithographs executed between 1898 and 1917—one per year—that capture the artist’s deep appreciation of the Brittany region. After completing the series, Rivière retired as a professional artist, at the age of 52.
Source
Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University
Identifier
2014.63
Rights
This image is posted publicly for non-profit educational uses, excluding printed publication. Other uses are not permitted.