Les Ferres

 

Augusta Payne Rathbone

  1897 - 1990 (biography)

c. 1936  

etching & color aquatint 

10 5/8 x 14 1/2" platemark 

pencil, lower right 

Artist's proof 

inscribed by the artist in lower left corner: 2 eme Epreuve; several annotations in other hands on the verso 

 

cream wove paper with an unidentified watermark 

published 

artist 

23199 

$1,250.00 

Les Ferres is a commune in France located in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It is a small village clinging to the rocky slopes of Mont Saint Michel and surrounded by the vast forests of Cheiron. In her imagery, Rathbone focused on the grandeur of Mont Saint Michel and only hinted at the village on the right side of the sloping mountain. Rathbone was a colorist, minimalist, and modernist fusing brilliant, flat colors with skillfully delineated lines to form a striking image. Rathbone used two plates, one for etching and one for aquatint, and in her early career relied on Monsieur Porcabeuf to print her plates. She traveled throughout the French Riviera in the mid 1930s and recorded the scenes in watercolor and drawing. A chance encounter with Juliet and Virginia Thompson resulted in the 1938 book French Riviera Villages in which Rathbone’s original aquatints were reproduced in pochoir.