L’eau-forte « mobile » dans l’évolution de l’estampe originale à la fin du XIXe siècle. Expériences françaises et italiennes

Abstract

Mobil etching in the evolution of original print of the nineteenth century. French and Italian experiences. From the 1870’s, the phenomenon of “mobil etching” underwent technical experiments which characterize the renewal of the world of etching, chiefly those conducted in the midst of avangardist movements, the Impressionists en France and the Scapigliatura milanese in Italy. A few artists went as far as transforming etching which, from an object implying a series, became an unique work of art and made the most of the paradox of the multiplication of an unique artefact, obtained by the continuous variations of inking up. As regards the French, Ludovic-Napoléon Lepic wrote in 1876 Comment je devins graveur à l’eau-forte ; as regards the Italians, two generations later, Vittore Grubicij de Dragon confirmed the findings of the modern etching with his essay, L’acquaforte nell’arte moderna (1895). We may wonder about the real motivations which led this generation to be so interested in this technique and how the two groups arrive to the adoption of an identical process without entertaining any relationship and starting from totally different historical and cultural bases. What appears as a common denominator is the introduction in esthetical values of a concept of time relativity, to which the world of etching answers in a more significant manner than other kinds of Art.