Ref. Morgan 589, Menpes 376 Printed in colours on cream wove. (Only colour impressions are known).
This plate is from Menpes’ final period when he etched only as a pastime, and not for exhibition or publication, and often revisiting earlier subjects.
Menpes visited Brittany a number of times, in 1876-78; 1881-82; 1888-90 (when he got to know Gauguin, who painted his daughter Dorothy); 1895; and 1899, his final visit to Brittany. This last visit was described by his daughter Dorothy in Menpes’ 1905 book Brittany. In Australia Menpes attended the Adelaide School of Design 1868-74.
He settled in London in 1875 and in 1878 enrolled in the National Art Training School at
South Kensington where he studied etching with Legros and won the Poynter Prize in 1879.
1880 proved a remarkably successful breakthrough year for him; he exhibited etchings at the R.A., Dowdeswells and the Fine Art Society. Menpes developed parallel interests in colour printing. He first exhibited etchings printed with coloured inks at Dowdeswells in 1897, and was a pioneer of original colour etching in Britain, pre-empting Theodore Roussel by a year or two. Menpes was equally involved in reproductive colour plate printing for art books. The colour etching offered here is directly related, in reverse, to the watercolour reproduced in Menpes’ book Brittany, 1905. But (despite lacking the Holy personnel) it has parallels too to Rembrandt’s painting, The Holy Family with Angels, in a peaceful dark interior, and even the secondary source of light from the fire at the right.