My Dream
1883
Medium
etching
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1951.16.13
Art Historical Context
**My Dream** (1883) is a captivating etching by Rodolphedin, a visionary French printmaker (1822–1885) whose intricate works bridged Romanticism and Symbolism. Created late in his career, this print exemplifies Bresdin's mastery of etching technique involving acid-biting into a metal plate to produce fine, expressive lines. Measuring about 20 x 26 inches, it draws viewers into a sprawling, dreamlike landscape teeming with fantastical elements: crumbling ruins, ethereal figures, mythical creatures, and lush foliage, all rendered with microscopic precision. Bresdin's style, often called "microl...
About the Artist
Rodolphe Bresdin · 1822–1885
Rodolphe Bresdin (1822–1885) was a visionary French draughtsman, engraver, and lithographer whose fantastical imagery captured the empathy of rural poverty and the wild exuberance of the imagination. Born on August 12, 1822, in Montrelais near Le Fresne-sur-Loire in Brittany, he grew up in the Breton countryside amid its bardic folklore traditions before a family dispute left him homeless in Paris...