Incendie dans le port de Bordeaux
1869
Medium
etching on laid paper
Dimensions
plate: 15.8 x 23.8 cm (6 1/4 x 9 3/8 in.) sheet: 16.1 x 24.2 cm (6 5/16 x 9 1/2 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Gaillard F. Ravenel and Frances P. Smyth-Ravenel
Accession Number
2000.7.22
Art Historical Context
Visitors to the National Gallery of Art are invited to explore *Incendie dans le de Bordeaux* (Fire in the Port of Bordeaux), a captivating 1869 etching by Maximeanne. Born in Bordeaux in 1827, Lalanne was a skilled French printmaker renowned for his intricate urban and landscape scenes. This work depicts a dramatic nocturnal blaze engulfing the bustling port of Bordeaux—a vital hub for wine trade and transatlantic commerce in the 19th century—capturing the chaos of flames, billowing smoke, and silhouetted figures rushing to aid. Rendered in etching on laid paper (plate: 15.8 x 23.8 cm), Lala...
About the Artist
Maxime Lalanne
François Antoine Maxime Lalanne (1827–1886) was born in Bordeaux into a family of civil servants, initially pursuing classical studies and a law career. At the Institution Oré, he learned drawing from instructor Saulnier and showed early promise, exhibiting pencil and pastel works at Bordeaux's Philomathique Society in 1850, where he earned a bronze medal. Encouraged by architect Léo Drouyn, Lalan...