Etching, aquatint, and drypoint printed in color on wove paper.
Reference: Tabanelli 98.
From the edition of 30 printed in color. According to Tabanelli there
are as may as sixty impressions in black (which likely means browning black).
This seems unlikely to us. Monochromatic impressions are extremely scarce in
our experience.
The funfair or carnival, or fête foraine or foire as the
French call it, was hugely popular in Paris at the
turn-of-the-previous-centuries. This cheap entertainment came with rides such
as merry-go-rounds, and circus acts such as clowns. But feats of strength,
which directly descended from rural fair competitions, were also common.
Wrestlers had official competitions but were also popular in such street
settings. And if you thought that watching women wrestling is something recent,
this composition should dispel that notion. Here is a woman, dressed in
revealing fleshy leotard and minimal loincloth, trying her hardest to push her
opponent into the dirt. A crowd of oglers, mostly male, is all too happy to
take in the spectacle, heads cocked at whatever angle will give them the best
view.
Signed and numbered in pencil.
Plate size: 7 ⅜ x 11 ⅝ inches.
