Haute Fidélité, etching with aquatint by Jacqueline Debutler, 1971

Etching with aquatint in black and red by French artist Jacqueline Debutler (b. 1932, Compiègne), titled Haute Fidélité in pencil verso. The print pairs a densely worked, finely hatched black plate — building up an architectural form pierced by a deep aquatint arch — against a single saturated red passage that cuts diagonally across the sheet, the small reserved white disc providing the only counterpoint. Signed ‘Debutler’ in pencil lower right and inscribed ‘E.A’ (épreuve d’artiste) lower left, this an artist’s proof outside the numbered edition. Haute Fidélité is the first title in the catalogue of Debutler’s etchings exhibited by the World Bank Art Society in Washington, D.C., in November 1971, allowing this impression to be dated firmly to that year. 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. Examples are 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, 1971.