Eugène Charvot - Paysanne Brûlant Des Herbes, Au Crépuscule - Watercolor Etching

Circa 1905
Watercolor etching on paper
Signed in the lower part of the plate "Charvot"
Anti-UV anti-reflective glass
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The main information available on Eugène Charvot comes from the research of Susan Gallo for the Cummer Museum in Jacksonville (Florida). Following the donation from his daughter, this museum actually preserves a significant collection, including 221 works by the artist as well as family archives.
A student of Léon Bonnat and Félix Giacomotti, Eugène Charvot led a dual career as a military doctor and an artist. He made his debut at the Salon in 1876 and exhibited landscape paintings of Bourbonnais, the Parisian suburbs, and then Tunisia during his travels as part of his duties as an army doctor.
From the turn of the century, he turned to engraving, becoming particularly passionate about etching. At the 1905 Salon des Artistes Français, he presented an original etching entitled Paysanne brûlant des herbes, au crépuscule (Peasant Woman Burning Grass at Dusk), the composition of which, also known from a drawing, depicts a young peasant woman wearing a headscarf, sitting on a haystack burning grass, against a backdrop of cottages and a cloudy sky. The model is his stepdaughter Gabrielle, who appears in several works engraved by the artist at the beginning of the 20th century (see the online lecture on Eugène Charvot by Susan Gallo available on YouTube). Our version is a reduced variation in tondo and colored by the artist in watercolor. This is characteristic of his production, several of his etchings having given rise to variations with drypoint or watercolor highlights.