Landscape with Willow Trees
1845
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet: 7 3/8 × 10 1/8 in. (18.8 × 25.8 cm) Plate: 3 9/16 × 5 7/8 in. (9 × 15 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Howard Mansfield, 1931
Accession Number
31.20.28
Art Historical Context
**Landscape with Willow Trees** (1845) by Charles Jacque captures the serene beauty of the French countryside through delicate etching. Jacque, a prominent French artist and member of the Barbizon School, was renowned for his pastoral scenes featuring rustic landscapes and farm animals. This intimate print, measuring just 3 9/16 × 5 7/8 inches on the plate, invites viewers into a tranquil glade dominated by gracefully drooping willow trees, evoking the natural harmony celebrated by 19th-century Realists. Etching, Jacque's chosen medium, allowed for intricate line work and tonal depth, as acid...
About the Artist
Charles Jacque
Charles-Émile Jacque (1813–1894) was a pioneering French painter, engraver, and illustrator whose career bridged the worlds of printmaking and pastoral painting. Born in Paris amid a difficult childhood, he apprenticed at age seventeen to a map engraver, mastering drypoint technique and producing his first etching in 1830—a copy of a head after Rembrandt. After serving seven years in the French Ar...