FÉLIX BRACQUEMOND
Le haut d'un battant de porte.

Etching, 1852. 305x402 mm; 12x15⅞ inches, wide margins. Fourth state (of 5). Printed by Delâtre, Paris. Published by Cadart and Luquet, Paris A very good impression.

According to the Rhode Island School of Design Museum (RISD), where there is another, earlier state, impression of this etching, "Bracquemond [1833-1914] based this print on a scene he observed on a farm in the French village of Villers-Cotterêts. In an earlier state, carefully represented birds and a bat nailed to a barn door, capturing details such as feathers and the door’s wood grain with exacting accuracy.

In later states, Bracquemond added a moralizing tone through the addition of a small wooden plaque below the birds. It contained a verse that played upon the French word voler-meaning both 'to fly' and 'to steal'-suggesting that, like humans, birds must pay the price for taking what is not theirs." Beraldi 110.