Prints and Authors in the Time of Manet

The Old Rooster (Le vieux coq)

Etching, 1882
Frederick B. Shoemaker fund, 1951.328

Félix Bracquemond began working in a commercial lithographic studio at age 15 to help support his mother and four siblings. Encouraged to learn etching, he obtained an instruction manual and taught himself the process. Bracquemond found a good deal of success as an artist and was one of the moving forces behind the French etching revival in the second half of the 19th century. He created almost 900 etchings, both original work and commissioned reproductions of other artists’ paintings. His specialty, though, was animals, particularly fowl.