Artwork
Pietà (3e planche) (Pietà) (third plate)
Pietà (3e planche) (Pietà) (third plate) is an ink print by Jean-Louis Forain. It dates from 1910 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art. Jean‑Louis Forain’s *Pietà (3e planche)* is an early‑20th‑century etching executed on laid Van Gelder paper.
About this work
Overview
Jean‑Louis Forain’s *Pietà (3e planche)* is an early‑20th‑century etching executed on laid Van Gelder paper.
Jean‑Louis Forain’s *Pietà (3e planche)* is an early‑20th‑century etching executed on laid Van Gelder paper. Completed in 1910, the work belongs to a small series of prints Forain produced during the last phase of his career, when he turned increasingly to graphic media. The image presents a compact, somber tableau that references the traditional Christian motif of the Pietà, yet it is rendered in Forain’s characteristic loose, sketch‑like manner.
Subject & Meaning
The composition gathers four figures around a recumbent body swathed in cloth. One figure kneels with a bowed head, another stands with uplifted hands as if in prayer, while a third leans close, holding a diminutive object. The arrangement concentrates on the immediacy of loss and devotion, using the minimal gestures of the participants to convey collective grief without elaborate narrative detail.
Technique & Style
Forain employed the intaglio process, incising the design into a metal plate before transferring the ink onto the Van Gelder paper. The lines are deliberately uneven and rapid, suggesting a spontaneous drawing rather than a polished finish. Shading is achieved through sparse cross‑hatching, allowing the stark contrast of black on the laid paper to emphasize form and emotion while maintaining a sense of visual economy.
History & Provenance
Created during a period when Forain’s prints enjoyed greater commercial success than many of his Impressionist contemporaries, the *Pietà* reflects his shift toward graphic work in the 1910s. Although the artist was well‑known in his lifetime, his reputation has since receded, and the print now resides within specialized collections of early 20th‑century French etchings, illustrating the broader trajectory of his printmaking output.
Artist & collection
Artist
Jean-Louis Forain (French pronunciation: ; 23 October 1852 – 11 July 1931) was a French Impressionist painter and printmaker, working in media including oils, watercolour, pastel, etching and lithograph.
Le repos en Egypte (The Rest in Egypt)
Avant le repas à Emmaus (1ère planche) (Before the Supper at Emmaus) (first plate)
La repos en Egypte (The Rest in Egypt)
Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Before the Supper at Emmaus
A Child on a Couch, No.2
Madonna and Children
Le miraculé devant l'ostensoir (4e planche) (The Miracle before the Blessed Sacrament) (fourth plate)