One of the finest original etchers
of early twentieth century French art, Auguste Brouet created
over three hundred drypoints and etchings during his career. From
a background of poverty, Brouet was apprenticed to first a lithographer
and then a lute maker, taking classes at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts
when time and money would permit. The great Paris printer, Auguste
Delatre, introduced Brouet to etching and his first original creation
in this medium dates from shortly after 1900. He also studied
with Gustave Moreau. Many of Brouet's finest works of art deal
with the poor and working classes of Paris and the surrounding
countryside. In this light, several scholars have compared Brouet's
art to the etchings of Rembrandt. Clearly, both Rembrandt and
Brouet shared an affinity for both compositional settings and
a deep concern for humanity: but Brouet's art is no slavish imitation.
His strong sense of modernity, his bold combination of etching
with drypointing and his very individualistic sense of design
and tone, makes Brouet's original prints among the most striking
works of art in the early twentieth century. in all of Brouet's
fine etchings, atmosphere is a key element. F. L. Leipnik writes,
"He (Brouet) has the rare gift of fixing the peculiar atmosphere
of an urban spot with all the elusive traces a long past has left
on them"
