Pêche au Vif
1864
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet: 13 in. × 18 7/8 in. (33 × 48 cm) Plate: 5 7/8 × 8 1/4 in. (15 × 21 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1927
Accession Number
27.10.36
Tags
Art Historical Context
**Pêche au Vif** (1864) by Charles Jacque captures a serene moment of rural life, depicting men engaged in fishing—likely with live bait, as suggested by the title's French phrasing. Jacque, a 19th-century French artist was renowned for his intimate portrayals of peasants and the countryside, evoking the everyday rhythms of the French provinces during the Second Empire era. This etching, now housed in the Metropolitan Museum Art's Drawings and Prints, reflects the period's fascination with authentic, unidealized scenes of labor and nature. Printed from a modest plate measuring 5⅞ × 8¼ inches,...
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...