De livrer à ta chair de trop rudes batailles
Se reposeront des dents et des bras
Racontant à l’envie, tes amours, tes combats.
He japonized this magnificent fowl in a purely decorative spirit, without the psychological element. And on the occasion of the visit of the Russian fleet to Toulon in 1893, he repeated and emphasized the theme to the verge almost of the grotesque, in a representation of the Gallic cock, a Hercules of his kind, with the aggressiveness of conscious strength, trumpeting forth his Vive le Tsar! with triumphant enthusiasm. This emblematic use of ornithological specimens has been already referred to in the case of the Canard. It appears notably also in Margot la Critique. The critic may note that Margot happens to be particularly unctuous in the state before the verses, but will not be otherwise adversely influenced by this etched philippic against his brethren.
Bracquemond. The Old Cock
“But a still more famous plate, because most strongly characteristic, is The Old Cock, a masterly portrait of chanticleer, in all the dignity and pomp of his mature vigor and serene self-sufficiency.”
Frank Weitenkampf, Félix Bracquemond: An Etcher of Birds.
Size of the original etching, 11¼ × 9⅞ inches
Bracquemond. Swallows in Flight