?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
THEODORE ROUSSEL Penelope, A Doorway, Chelsea.
Etching, 1888-89. 115x70 mm; 4 1/4x2 3/4 inches. Edition of approximately 30. Signed and inscribed "imp" in pencil on the tab lower center. A richly-inked, tonal impression on cream laid paper.
According to Hausberg, "The Woman in the doorway was reputedly a Thames steamer captain's wife who knitted as she waited for him to pass on the river each day . . . Roussel's title refers to Ulysses' wife, Penelope, who occupied the time with weaving while she waited for her husband's return."
Roussel achieved a delicacy in his etchings very similar to that of Whistler during the 1880s/1890s, with an economy of line and a flatness in composition. He mastered the vignette-like effect that Whistler championed in his etchings from Venice onward. This image of a Chelsea woman standing in a doorway not only captures the essence of Whistler's later etchings, it also recalls Whistler prints like The Rag Gatherers and La Marchande de Moutarde, lots 6 and 7 respectively, from the late 1850s. Hauberg 23.
