“La Dame au Chapeau (Lady with hat)”

Year:	1910
Medium:	drypoint
Dimensions:	25 x 18,5 cm
Edition size:	28 (13/28)
Signature:	lower left in pencil

Gaston Darbour (French, Sédan 1869–1964 Menton), from the age of 14, was Gaston interested in graphic arts. Worried, his parents sent him on various trips to Germany, England, and Austria, hoping he would abandon this passion. At 20, he enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, in the workshops of Lefebvre and Benjamin-Constant, but left disappointed. A friend showed him the work of Félicien Rops, and the young man, fascinated, decided to dedicate himself to engraving and graphic design. With no hurry to make a living from his art, he moved to the Château d'Uzos, a few kilometers from Pau, to work, while also exhibiting regularly at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. 1897 seems to have marked the true beginning of his career: the journal L'Estampe moderne published some of his lithographs, and he illustrated various works, including Paul Adam's L’Année de clarisse, published by Paul Ollendorff, and Auguste Germain's Chantez les baisers (Ed. Simonis Empis), followed by Jeanne Marni's Celles qu'on ignore (1899), also published by Ollendorff. He also illustrated several bibliophile editions by Henri Beraldi. He contributed to the Revue de l'art ancien et moderne, La Revue septentrionale, L'Image, L'Humanité nouvelle, and other publications. A print of the edition No 14/28 in the collection Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. see: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/collectie/RP-P-1954-250