Water Dock and Brambles at a Sluice
1843
Medium
etching [proof] on chine collé
Dimensions
plate: 39 x 50.2 cm (15 3/8 x 19 3/4 in.) sheet: 45.2 x 59.1 cm (17 13/16 x 23 1/4 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund
Accession Number
2012.59.3
Art Historical Context
In the serene etching *Water Dock and Brambles a Sluice* (1843), French artist Eugène Bléry the quiet beauty of a rural waterway scene. Bléry, a master etcher active in mid-19th-century France renders lush water dock plants and tangled brambles framing a sluice—a wooden gate controlling water flow—with meticulous detail. This work reflects the Romantic interest in nature's untamed vitality, evoking the damp, earthy atmosphere of the French countryside during an era of industrialization. Printed as a proof on *chine collé*—a technique where delicate Chinese paper is glued to a sturdier support...
About the Artist
Eugène Bléry
Eugène Bléry (1805–1887) was a French engraver and etcher whose refined printmaking brought him considerable recognition among connoisseurs of the graphic arts during the nineteenth century. He trained in Paris and developed a particular affinity for landscape subjects rendered through the demanding medium of etching, where his technical precision and sensitivity to natural light set his work apar...