Eugène Stanislas Alexandre Bléry

Bléry was employed as a mathematics teacher to the Montalivet family in Berry, but in 1830, at the age of 22, he decided to take up a career as a landscape painter, having been taught by JeanFrançois Hue and Jules-Louis-Philippe Coignet. His encounter with the work of Jean-Jacques de Boissieu in Lyon in 1836 seems to have had a considerable impact on Bléry, for it was from this moment onwards that he dedicated himself to etching, an art he was to pursue for the rest of his life. The continued patronage of the Montalivet family enabled Bléry to produce and publish his prints on his own account.

This etching is part of a series of four entitled Les quatre grandes plantes (1842–43). With the exception of two reproductive prints after Ruisdael and Hobbema and some composed landscapes, Bléry’s graphic oeuvre consists mainly of works engraved directly after nature or after his own drawings from nature. The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has a drawing of similar subject matter, the composition of which, although not entirely similar, shows remarkable resemblances to the present print.

A very fine and even impression with narrow margins. Some foxing, slight traces of handling and water damage in the top left-hand corner of the sheet, otherwise well preserved.