Georges Joseph Rasetti (1851-1938) - Lot 248

Georges Joseph Rasetti (1851-1938) Peasant family, Huelgoat. Circa 1894. Woodcut. 232 x 210. Very fine and rare print on buff vellum, fixed with pieces of adhesive on verso (another small remnant at center foot). Small loss in the upper right-hand corner and other tiny losses at the lower left-hand edge. Short tears at head. Good margins. Stamp R. T. "Georges Rasetti, the father, is that curious artist, friend of the Nabis, who travels around Brittany. He was in Huelgoat in 1893, where he met Verkade and Ballin. With his thick, inimitable paste, he painted families of peasants frozen, hieratic and sumptuous in their embroidered costumes. We only know this wood by Rasetti". (Cent ans d'estampes en Bretagne, Le Faouët, 1998, p. 21). "In the autumn of 1888, [the artist] met Paul Gauguin, which enabled him to break away from realism and make contact with the future Nabis. In the summer of 1891, Chaudet and Rasetti headed for Brittany. They settled in Huelgoat, where they met Paul Sérusier, Jan Verkade and Mogens Ballin, whom Rasetti introduced to ceramic painting. Later, he set up a kiln in Bois-Colombes, and also worked with Maurice Denis, Armand Seguin, Georges Rouault and Édouard Vuillard, asking them for ornamental designs, which he put into shape in the company of his son. Rasetti's paintings now express a distinctive style, having assimilated the theory of synthesism. He now exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants. (Wikipedia). Rasetti's works are very rare, as many of them burned in the fire in his studio where he died in 1938. This print was featured in the following exhibitions: Cent ans d'estampes en Bretagne, Le Faouët, 1998; Before and After Gauguin, Atlanta, 2008.