Abstract composition in terracotta and black, etching with aquatint by Jacqueline Debutler, circa 1971-1974

Etching with aquatint in terracotta, black, and ruled black line by French artist Jacqueline Debutler (b. 1932, Compiègne). The composition reads as three plates in dialogue: a vertical band of fine horizontal striations on the left, a deep terracotta-sienna aquatint plate carrying the central faceted form with a saturated black rectangle inset, and a meticulous architectural grid of ruled black lines crossing the right side, the grid drawing carrying behind the terracotta where the plates overlap. Signed ‘Debutler’ in pencil lower right and inscribed ‘E.A IV/X’ (épreuve d’artiste, the fourth of ten artist’s proofs) lower left, with inventory number ‘4159’ in pencil verso. The work sits in the most refined phase of Debutler’s mature printmaking, exhibited under the heading eaux-fortes originales at Galerie Pierre Hautot in Paris in April 1974. Debutler trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Amiens before four years of post-graduate study with Johnny Friedländer in Paris, and her etchings were published in Paris by Éditions Hautot and Éditions de la Tortue and distributed in the United States by Editions AAA, with examples held in the Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris. Printed on heavy deckled-edge mould-made paper. Acquired directly from the artist’s family, with supporting archive material. France, circa 1971-1974.