Urban Etching: The Printmaking of Modern Paris, 1850–80

Dunn, Ashley Elizabeth

doi:https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-r47t-5s49

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Urban Etching: The Printmaking of Modern Paris, 1850–80

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Etching flourished as a printmaking medium in Paris during the Second Empire and early Third Republic, the precise timeframe of the city’s drastic transformation due to the state-authorized phase of urban renewal implemented under the reign of Napoléon III by his prefect of the Seine, Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann. This study focuses on the work of three etchers, Charles Meryon (1821–1868), Adolphe “Martial” Potémont (1827–1883), and Félix Buhot (1847–1898), who each worked primarily as printmakers and devoted much of their practice to the subject of the French capital during this period of constant demolition and construction that fundamentally altered the city space. Through an examination of their etchings of Paris, this dissertation asks how the material and formal aspects of the medium facilitated representation of the built environment and conditions of modern urban life during this era of relentless change. Challenging the prevailing dominance of painting and photography as privileged media in art historical analysis of this period, I attend to the specificity of etching as a medium profoundly engaged with the modernization of Paris. Each chapter explores an approach to urban representation generated by etching. The first is an emphasis on the unfinished as an aesthetic and, more importantly, as a structural property of the medium that coincided with understandings of the constantly evolving, never-finished urban fabric. Second, etchers developed compositions that accommodated multiple and simultaneous subjects and perspectives, pioneering techniques of montage to articulate urban experience. Third, as a technique of reproduction, etching enabled artists to re-present works by others, bringing historic context to contemporary change, and putting pressure on present-day priorities of authorship and chronology. Finally, these etchers incorporated text in their prints, not only acknowledging its pervasiveness in the visual experience of the modern city, but also embracing the polyglot language of their print medium to enhance the meaning and information conveyed by their work and to stake a claim on urban space. By analyzing how etchers employed their medium to depict the architectural, spatial, and social transformation of Paris, this dissertation expands art historical understanding of the graphic strategies with which artists contended with nineteenth-century urban modernity.

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