CHAHINE EDGAR 1874-1947.
Portrait d'Alfred Stevens.
"The work marks Chahine's turn toward portraits of men, many of whom exerted a lasting influence on the formation and development of his career.
Among these portaits was one of Alfred Stevens, a well-known flemish painter, whose early interest in realism was combined with an ability to create elegant portraits of women. In an attenuated print that has the feel of a spontaneous sketch, Chahine focuses on the artist's face. There are few other such intemitate portrait studies in the history of nineteenth-century printmaking, although Félix Bracquemond's Portrait of Edmond de Goncourt could be considered an impressive precursor. But where Bracquemond's portrait has a rigid, icon-quality, Chahine tried to create an intimate atmosphere with the painter shown relaxing in a cushioned armchair. If there is any earlier portrait that suggests Chahine'eventual composition, it could be Manet's Portrait of Mallarmé, where similar informal attitude dominates."
wrote Gabriel P. Weisberg in " La vie Parisienne ".*
Tabanelli : 54.
Drypoint. Edition for the "Gazette des Beaux-Arts".1904
A very few proofs signed on big paper.
Proof with lettering on "simili japon" paper.
Signed and dedicated to his French editor Edmond Sagot.
Dimensions : Plate 22 * 15, sheet 31.5 * 23 cm.
*Gabriel P. Weisberg : " Edgar Chahine La vie Parisienne " Smithsonian Institution 1984.
page 12 , including a reproduction of the drypoint.