Léon Lhermitte (1844-1925), who trained with Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran (a teacher whose pupils included Henri Fantin-Latour and Alphonse Legros), was a painter, draughtsman, pastellist and printmaker best known for his scenes of rural life painted in a Naturalist style. He enjoyed success at the Salon as well as in London; van Gogh admiringly referred to him as ‘Millet the Second’. Later in life he devoted himself primarily to pastel. He was a prolific etcher, using the medium to produce both original works as well as reproductions of his own paintings and pastels.

This etching, which depicts a Breton fish market in the town of Saint-Malo, was issued in The Portfolio, July 1882 (opposite p.117), and this impression might be from that publication but lacks the usual watermark of the periodical (‘PORTFOLIO/MBM’). It is based on an untraced painting from 1876–78, sold in 1878 (See Pelley-Fonteny, p. 129, no. 130 (peintures non localisées)). Lhermitte was popular in late Victorian Britain and sent to the first ‘black and white’ exhibition in Glasgow in 1880 a work with this title, which may have been a pen and ink or charcoal drawing. Edwin Edwards got his election to the selection and hanging committee of the Dudley Gallery, London ‘black and white’ exhibition in 1875. Lhermitte also exhibited in Manchester and Liverpool. In 1888 at the ‘black and white’ exhibition in Glasgow was The fish-market at St. Malo, lent by J D Hedderwick, as were several other charcoal drawings (See ‘Art notes and reviews’, The Art Journal, August 1888, p. 256). The print gives an excellent idea of Lhermitte’s draughtsmanship.

Paul Prouté, Paris from whom purchased by Donato Esposito, September 2007 (Stock number 3729); Gift of Donato Esposito in memory of Professor John House, 2012

Print Room Display - Honouring John House, The Courtauld Gallery (Prints and Drawings Study Room), 05/08/2015-25/02/2016

Bibliotheque Nationale, Departement des Estampes, Inventaire du Fonds Francais, apres 1800 (IFF), Paris 1930-1967
cat. no. 18
p. 309
1967, Vol. 14

Léon Augustin Lhermitte (1844–1925): Catalogue raisonné
cat. no. 38
p. 499

Inscription: inscription : printed : lower left within image & recto : : L.L'hermitte

Inscription: inscription : handwritten in pencil : lower centre & recto : : 3719