Porte Saint-Denis 1928

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print, etching

print

etching

cityscape

realism

Dimensions: 19 7/8 x 23 11/16 in. (50.48 x 60.17 cm) (image)20 15/16 x 24 7/16 in. (53.18 x 62.07 cm) (sight)32 3/4 x 38 1/2 in. (83.19 x 97.79 cm) (outer frame)

Jules de Bruycker made this image of the Porte Saint-Denis using etching, drypoint, and engraving. Look at the way he’s rendered all the different details and textures. It’s a kind of symphony of mark-making that comes together to form this amazing bustling street scene. I can imagine de Bruycker standing on the street, trying to capture the essence of the city, and how it must have felt to be him, observing all this chaos and trying to translate it onto a copper plate. To me, the most striking part is the crowd of figures milling about in the foreground. They’re like little scratches of energy, caught mid-stride. Each tiny line contributes to the overall sense of movement and liveliness. De Bruycker obviously knew and admired Rembrandt. Both artists shared a love for capturing the grit and beauty of everyday life. The image really speaks to the fact that artists are always in conversation with one another, across time and space. It just goes to show that a good idea, or a good mark, can keep echoing through the ages, and it’s up to us to listen.

Comments

minneapolisinstituteofart over 1 year ago

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Jules de Bruycker was a Belgian painter, draftsman, and printmaker noted for his highly detailed drawings, watercolors, and prints documenting the lives of the working class and urban poor, especially those living in the older sections of his home city of Ghent. In the present example, De Bruycker portrays the Gate of St. Denis, a seventeenth-century triumphal arch built for King Louis XIV, as it appeared in 1928. Though the triumphal arch dominates the composition, the artist included many details of the surrounding Paris streetscape, including the hodge-podge of shops and crowds of people going about their daily lives in the shadow of the grand monument.