Bonington, Richard Parke. RUE DU GROS HORLOGE, ROUEN. Lithograph on chine colle, 1824. Plate 173 of Voyages Pittoresques et Romantiques dans L'Ancienne France. 9 1/4 x 9 3/4 inches; 235 x 250 mm., mounted to a sheet 13 x 3/4 x 16 7/8 inches. Title printed in the margin below the image, center, "Bonington, 1824" at left, and "Lith de G. Engelmann," right. A brilliant impression of one of the signal images of early artistic lithography, Felix Man deemed this to be Bonington's masterpiece because of "its delicate gradation of tone." (Man, Artist's Lithographs, p. 38) In excellent condition. "One of the most important [of the artists who collaborated on Voyages Pittoresques] is Richard Parkes Bonington, who was born in England in 1801, moved to France at an early age and died in London in 1828. His townscapes long served as models for similar work in lithography. His prints have the much-praised silver-grey tone of the French lithographic masterpieces from the shops of Engelmann and Delpech. But Bonington added that wonderful velvety black which allows the atmosphere of the pictures to flicker up between light and dark." (Weber, A History of Lithography, McGraw-Hill, 1966).
