Existing comment:
Experimental Printmaker
A tireless innovator, Guérard was committed to the task of fine printing and to "cooking" his prints, a culinary term used by the artist's peers to describe their idol Rembrandt van Rijn's habit of experimenting with different papers and tinkering with plates. Like Rembrandt, Guérard was proud of pulling his own impressions, a practice he celebrated in an 1875 issue of Paris à l'eau-forte, to which he regularly contributed. He wrote, "La belle épreuve (the artist's proof ) is first of all pulled by the artist himself and satisfies the impression that he wanted to produce. [. . .] Rembrandt did not proceed otherwise: he pulled his etchings himself, and I think we can only win by following the example of such a master." |