Etching by Jean-Emile Laboureur, L'Automne, c1929
Etching (sight to mat): 8.25" x 9.25"
Frame:15" x 17.25"

Jean-Emile Laboureur
(Source: wiki) Laboureur was born to a prosperous bourgeois family in 1877. In 1895, he went to Paris and, following his father's wishes, enrolled at a law school. He stayed for only a short time before deciding to pursue a career in the fine arts instead, studying at the Academie Julian, where he learned engraving from Auguste-Louis Lepere. His debut at the Salon came in 1896. Most of his initial works were wood engravings on Primitivist themes, reminiscent of Paul Gauguin.

After a stay in Germany, visiting museums, he went to the United States in 1904. It was there he first began referring to himself as Jean Emile. He returned to the United States and Canada several times from 1905 to 1909, to participate in exhibits. After 1911, he travelled to England, Italy, Greece, and Turkey.

Upon returning to Europe, he settled in Paris, where he switched from wood engraving to etching. Despite being conscripted in 1914, he continued to make sketches for his works and published three series of engravings on the theme of war.

He illustrated his first book, LAppartement des jeunes filles by Roger Allard, in 1919. He would eventually illustrate sixty-six titles, including works by Jean Giraudoux, Jacques Cazotte, Remy de Gourmont, Auguste de Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, Andre Maurois, Colette, Tristan Derème, Anna de Noailles, Paul-Jean Toulet and Marcel Proust. He also contributed to magazines and journals, such as Gazette du Bon Ton and La Revue musicale, and taught engraving in his workshop. Among his notable students were Marie Laurencin and Andre Dunoyer de Segonzac. At the beginning of the 1930s, he was commissioned to provide illustrations for the Catalogue Manufrance, which employed engravings for several decades after that.

Although based in Paris, he bought a house in Brittany and spent the summer months there. One of his drawings of a Breton landscape was engraved by Jean Antonin Delzers and featured on the two Francs stamp in 1935. From 1928 to 1935, he wrote several books and articles on the art of engraving; notably Considerations sur la gravure originale (1928), published in Brussels.

During World War II, he became ill and retired to his home near Pénestin, where he died in 1943. A street in Nantes was named after him. His works may be seen at the Musee du Louvre, the Musee d'Orsay, the Musee des Beaux-Arts de Nantes and the Musee dArt moderne Richard Anacreon.

Good condition overall