Bretagne, ”Labourer le champ”.
This etching of a horse ploughing Brittany farmer by Charles Heyman was found in an old and large Dutch collection of graphic works being dissolved. Googling my subject (“Brittany” + “horse ploughing”) delivered this wonderful example by British artist (who’d studied in Paris and Pont-Aven and worked also in Brittany) Robert Bevan (1865-1925). A highly interesting painter. But since my subject Charles Heyman has never been the subject of any serious or proper recent research Bevan must wait for later.
Archive
The grandson of Barbizon painter and founder Jean Francois Millet fell early in WW-I, just 34 years old. Before he was drafted and found his end in Flanders Fields he’d produced some 160 known etchings mostly of fine quality for which he was awarded posthumously on several occasions. Today he is a relatively unknown and obscured French etcher. Besides the many Paris views (he obviously liked and preferred the vertical format) he created also really nice Brittany landscapes and industrial sites, railway stations etc… And a “Carte Visite” for Eugène Delatre.
A quick and random choice of his work found in auction sites etc… An artist to remember, research and collect. Read his short biography assembled by what could be found in literature, the Internet etc. in the accompanying artists biographies books.
gerbrandcaspers@icloud.com
