Jacques Barraband Art

Leonard Merchant's mezzotint, "Snail in Cup" is inscribed for fellow artist, Fritz Eichenberg. While a student at the Central School for Arts and Crafts in London, a young Leonard Marchant found an engraving rocker in a cupboard and proceeded to turn himself into a master of the painstaking art of mezzotinting. Marchant, who has died in Shrewsbury aged 70, grew up in Simonstown, the Royal Navy's enclave in South Africa. Though his first job was as a parliamentary messenger, he taught himself to paint and, aged 19, was given a one-man show in Cape Town. Fired by this success, he left for England to study painting and, he claimed, to escape the stifling home atmosphere created by his Catholic mother and aunts. (His father was killed in the second world war.) Without contacts in London, he phoned Jacob Epstein, whose recommendation resulted in a grant to study briefly at the Central School. It was later, when studying full-time at the Central, that he saw the mezzotints of the Japanese master, Yozo Hamaguchi, in a London gallery. He was hooked. Creating a mezzotint is tedious in the extreme. The copper plate must first be prepared with a "rocker" which roughens the surface. A plate may be "rocked" 30 or 40 times. The rough texture is then reduced with a burnisher and a scraper, allowing the print a range of tones from velvety black through the greys to white. Marchant's plates could be months in the making. But the technical demands were the least of his worries. In its 18th- and 19th-century heyday, mezzotint was solely a reproductive medium, for copying masters such as Reynolds and Turner. The development of photography rendered it unfashionable, and by the 1960s the technique, known as la manière anglaise, was a bygone medium. Marchant, by now a teacher in printmaking at the Central, began to create original mezzotints with a colleague, Radavan Kraguly. A perfectionist, he seemed to revel in the straitjacket procedure. Perhaps it was the metaphor of bringing darkness out of light that appealed to this straight-talking, sometimes sombre, man, who would suddenly relax and light up like a gleaming hue on one of his prints. His work was of squares and triangles with the occasional cat, black and ominous, and carefully arranged still lifes, featuring plants, a seed pod, a pot he might have bought at auction to celebrate the sale of a print. There were one-man shows, notably at the Bankside Gallery. He sold well at the Royal Academy summer exhibition, was a Florence Biennale prizewinner, spent a fellowship year at the British School in Rome, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. But making mezzotints was not a paying job. Marchant and his South African wife...

Plate 13 from La Suite Vollard. Bloch 229. Baer 444. Etching on Montval paper. Signed in pencil, from the edition of 260 (there was also an edition of 50 with larger margins). Printe...

paper: 22 x 15 in. printed image: 4 3/4 x 6 in. english translation: Long Hand Crab Latin

Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium, Plate No. 39; Unidentified tree with moth, caterpillar and pupa. The Netherlands: 1705....

"Three Herons" - Hand Watercolor Engraving "Three Herons" from a collection of the Most Rare Birds Drawn and Engraved From Life, A Natural and Rational History of the Different Bird...

Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium, Plate No. 6; Thistle and Moths. The Netherlands: 1705. Engraving with hand coloring in w...

Robert Rauschenberg Lily Scent, 1981 Lithograph 32 x 24 inches SPIII Signed

Untitled bird print of parrots. Source unknown, to be determined. Published circa 1860.

Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium, Plate No. 26; Cocoa plant, caterpillar, pupa, and butterflies. The Netherlands: 1705. En...

PARROTS AND FLOWERS is an original hand drawn lithograph by the renowned Chinese born artist Walasse Ting (DING XIONGQUAN, Chinese, 1929-2010) printed on archival Somerset printmakin...

Artist: Saverio Manetti (Italian, 1723-1785) Title: "Sparrowhawk" (Plate XXI - 21) Portfolio: Storia Naturale Degli Uccelli (The Natural History of Birds) Year: 1767-1776 Medium: Original Hand-Colored Engraving on watermarked laid paper Limited edition: Unknown Printer: Unknown Publisher: heirs of Francesco Mouck (Vols. I-III), Gaetano Cambiagi (Vol. IV), Giuseppe Vanni (Vol. V), Florence, Italy Reference: Ayer/Zimmer page 241; Fine Bird Books page 120; McGill/Wood, page 450; Nissen IVB No. 588 Sheet size: 17.88" x 14.07" Platemark size: 13.69" x 11.69" Condition: A few small minor areas of discoloration in margins. Has been professionally stored away for decades. In excellent condition with strong colors Rare Notes: Engraved and hand-colored by Italian artists Lorenzo Lorenzi (Active: 1750-1780) and Violante Vanni (1732-1776). Latin and Italian texts by Saverio Manetti. Comes from Manetti's monumental five volume "Storia Naturale Degli Uccelli (The Natural History of Birds)", (1767-1776), which consists of 600 hand-colored engravings. Unidentified watermark in center of sheet. The Eurasian sparrowhawk, also known as the northern sparrowhawk or simply the sparrowhawk, is a small bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. Adult male Eurasian sparrowhawks have bluish grey upperparts and orange-barred underparts; females and juveniles are brown above with brown barring below. Manetti's extraordinary "Storia Naturale Degli Uccelli (The Natural History of Birds)", 1767-1776 was commissioned by Maria Luisa, the Grand Duchess of Tuscany. It is a massive 5 book volume set of 600 hand-colored engraved plates of birds. Engraved and hand-colored by Italian artists Lorenzo Lorenzi (Active: 1750-1780) and Violante Vanni (1732-1776). Latin and Italian texts by Manetti. Manetti created the drawings almost exclusively from real specimens, beginning with the extensive collection of Marquis Giovanni Gerini, an affluent Florentine Senator. Manetti saw the work was published in parts of 12 plates, issued every two months or so, most plates dedicated to a prominent member of the Italian nobility and gentry. Printed on handmade watermarked laid paper and published by heirs of Francesco Mouck (Vols. I-III), Gaetano Cambiagi (Vol. IV), Giuseppe Vanni (Vol. V), between 1767-1776 in Florence, Italy. It took 10 years to complete and at its time, was one of the largest surveys of ornithology attempted and the finest set of bird books to ever be created. Biography: Francesco Saverio Manetti...

This box set of prints includes 5 limited edition prints signed by the artist. (Edition of 30) This newly released, print set by Thomas Broadbent ...