Alfred Brunet-Debaines (1845-1939) worked primarily as a printmaker and a watercolourist, exhibiting work in both media regularly at the Salon. He also enjoyed strong links with Britain, living there from 1884-1897 and undertaking a number of commissions for prints published by British periodicals, such as a series of views of Oxford, Edinburgh and London (1878-9 and 1887-88) in ‘Portfolio’. In addition to his own original prints, he was a prolific reproductive printmaker, making etchings after the work of Turner, Constable, Canaletto, Corot and others.

The present etching reproduces J.M.W. Turner’s watercolour ‘Totnes’ (1824), a work he produced for an engraving project, ‘The Rivers of England’ (1823-27); it had originally been reproduced as a mezzotint as part of the series by Charles Turner in 1825. Although not listed in Rawlinson’s catalogue raisonné of prints after the work of Turner, it was published in Landscape by Philip Gilbert Hamerton (London: Seeley & Co., 1885), which suggests it was made around this date. It differs markedly from the mezzotint, particularly in the way it privileges capturing delicate effects in the sky over recording the foreground in detail. This print appears to be a proof before letters.

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