Existing comment:
Henri-Charles Guérard (French, 1846–1897)
Le Grand corbeau pendu (The Large Hanging Raven), before 1888
Drypoint
In 1875, the famous Symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé translated Edgar Allen Poe's macabre poem The Raven into French. Soon thereafter, Richard Lesclide of Paris à l'eau-forte, the arts journal to which Guérard contributed regularly, worked with Guérard's friend Édouard Manet to publish and illustrate Poe's poem. Even though Manet's rendering was of a living bird, Guérard's image of a dead raven hanging from an invisible string is no doubt indebted to his friend's work, and to the contemporary fascination with Poe. |