The artistic revival of the woodcut in France 1850-1900

by Jacquelynn Baas

The University of Michigan Museum of Art is proud to present "The Artistic Revival of the Woodcut in France 1850-1900." an exhibition devoted to an important area in the development of the graphic arts. The exhibition and this catalogue are the work of guest curators Jacquelynn Baas, formerly assistant director of this museum, now chief curator of the Hood Museum of Art. Dartmouth College, and Richard S. Field, associate director and curator of prints, drawings and photographs at the Yale University Art Gallery. We are indebted to them both for their excellent work in making an important addition to art historical scholarship, and for organizing an exhibition that presents a wide range of prints of the highest quality and beauty. The concept of the "revival" of the woodcut toward the end of the nineteenth century is to some extent an artificial one. In fact, because of the suitability of the relief process for typographic printing, the use of the woodcut increased steadily from the beginning of the century. If we had chosen to focus on the medium in general, the title of this exhibition would simply have been "The Nineteenth-Century Revival of the Woodcut." However, our interest did not lie in the expressive possibilities of the woodcut for reproductive purposes, but rather in its potential for original artistic expression. For a variety of reasons outlined in the introductory essays, this potential remained largely unexploited until the end of the nineteenth century. The essays are intended to serve as introductory overviews; Jacquelynn Baas discusses technical developments and summarizes the woodcut revival in France, while Richard Field places the nineteenth-century woodcut in an international context, focusing on its artistic expression in England and Germany. The entries that follow present the artists of the woodcut revival in chronological sequence as far as possible, in order to help keep the general course of historical development in view.

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984