"Rouget de L'Isle Singing The Marseillaise for the First Time" after the painting by Isidore-Alexandre-Augustin Pils, antique Victorian photogravure; engraved by Goupil, 1881; printed on heavy stock paper; signed in plate "I.A.A. Pils, Pinx." and "Gravure Goupil et Cie." "The Masterpieces of French Art" The description sheet for this print is included.br>
Design 9.3/8" x 7.1/4" [238mm x 185mm], the entire plate is 11.1/2" x 15" [290mm x 380mm]; a little aging, a little corner wear, a little foxing, very good condition [see photo].

Isidore-Alexandre-Augustin Pils (1815-1875) was a French academic painter of religious and military subjects. Pils's earlier paintings have religious themes. In 1849 he completed his most famous work, Rouget de L'Isle Singing La Marseillaise, which now resides at the Musée historique de Strasbourg. After experiences traveling with French troops through the Crimea, his themes took on military and nationalistic subjects. He later produced many military scenes during the siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.

Pils was appointed professor of painting at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1863 but left the same year for two years in Algeria. In 1868 he was elected to seat #14 of the Academie des Beaux-Arts. Among his other work, Pils painted part of the ceiling of the grand staircase of the Palais Garnier, in four panels titled The Gods of Olympus, Apollo in His Chariot, Triumph of Harmony, and Apotheosis of the Opera, completed the year of his death.

In the 1870s-1890s, Goupil & Cie were the leading art dealers in 19th century France, with headquarters in Paris and a network of branches in London, Brussels, The Hague, Berlin and Vienna, as well as in New York and Australia. Instrumental for this expansion was the "Ateliers Photographiques", a plant north of Paris, in Asnieres, which took up its work in 1869. The photogravures created in this plant dominated the world art market of 1880s-1890s.

The creation of the photogravure plate was a complicated process requiring a work by a photographer and experienced master-engraver. First, a copper plate was coated with a light-sensitive gelatin tissue which had been exposed to a film positive, and then etched, resulting in a high-quality intaglio print that can reproduce the detail and continuous tones of a photograph. It is a manual process. Therefore, the quality of the photogravure depends on the masterly execution by the engraver.

Photogravures were engraved on copper plates and leave a plate impression in the paper. Due to relative softness of copper, the editions of photogravures were limited to a few thousand copies similarly to copper engravings and etchings.

Artwork will be mailed unframed.

US: Priority (c 2-4 days) --------- $20.50
Canada: 1st Class (c 2-6 weeks) -- $27.50
World: 1st Class (c 2-7 weeks) --- $35.50