Charles Jacque was born in Paris on May 23, 1813, and to the last (he died at the ripe age of 81, in the year 1894) he retained, in country life, something of the city man’s point of view, the love of the “picturesque,” the anecdotic, in marked contrast to his greater contemporary, Jean-François Millet, whose few etchings form an epic of the soil even more powerful than his paintings. For all that, Jacque is a true etcher, working along the soundest lines and safest traditions. He is unequal: his work suffers at times from a hankering for “finish”; but at his best his little plates are delightfully suggestive, every line being there for a purpose, and not a line too much.
Up to 1848 he had completed some three hundred etchings and dry-points, and it is among this group that many “masterpieces in little” are to be found. It would be hard to find a better model of style than the Wheat Field. The print is scarcely larger than a visiting card, but it conveys a sense of spaciousness and “out of doors” sadly lacking in many a painting in full color and of a hundred times its size. The Truffle Gatherers is likewise of modest size, but the landscape with its leafless trees is full of air, and the sense of life and movement, as well as the effective composition of the “rooters” accompanied by their herdsman, is, from many points of view, unexcelled.
The Storm—Landscape with a White Horse is one of Jacque’s finest interpretations of wind and rough weather. This dry-point, unfortunately very rare, recalls the work of Rembrandt in his mature period. The sky, slashed with driving showers, the trees swayed this way and that by the gusty wind, the white horse with legs firmly braced, its mane and tail matted by the rain against its neck and flank, all combine to heighten and intensify the effect.
Younger than Jacque by four years (he was born February 15, 1817), Charles-François Daubigny differs from him in that it is the lyric, the spiritual aspect of nature, rather than the incidental and picturesque details of country life, which moved him.
CHARLES JACQUE. STORM—LANDSCAPE WITH A WHITE HORSE
Size of the original dry-point, 6⅜ × 8⅜ inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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CHARLES-FRANÇOIS DAUBIGNY. DEER IN A WOOD
Size of the original etching, 6⅜ × 4⅜ inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston