After his initial efforts of about 1873 (22.15.3 and 22.15.4), Bracquemond returned to color printmaking in the 1890s with this remarkable and experimental work. A female nude seated on the bank of the Seine reaches above her head to gather the end of a rainbow, which falls at her side like moiré cloth. Paris appears in the far distance, while the other end of the rainbow merges with billowing smoke from an industrial landscape on the opposite side of the river. For the final print, the artist intended to combine an etching printed in black ink with this color lithograph. This impression shows the lithography only, without the refining detail of the etched line.
Credit: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1960
1893
Color lithograph
47.4 x 62.9cm
60.620.235
Image and text © Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2019
Where you'll find this
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Permanent collection