Parisian Service (Haviland service): Sunrise (no. 12) - Félix Bracquemond

A delicate etching by Félix Bracquemond, featuring birds and flowering branches in the Japonisme style, originally designed for the Haviland Parisian Service.

This etching by Félix Bracquemond originates from the celebrated Parisian Service, a dinnerware project commissioned by the American porcelain manufacturer Haviland and Co. during the 1870s. Bracquemond, a central figure in the French printmaking revival, directed the artistic production of this service, which remains a primary example of the Japonisme movement in European decorative arts.

The composition reflects the aesthetic principles of Japanese woodblock prints, which Bracquemond collected and studied with great care. Rather than filling the entire surface, the design employs an asymmetrical arrangement of birds and flowering branches, leaving significant areas of negative space. This approach creates a sense of lightness and movement, typical of the artist's work during this period. The lines are thin and precise, capturing the delicate anatomy of the birds and the organic forms of the foliage with economy and grace.

Bracquemond designed the service to be modular, allowing for various combinations of motifs across different plates and vessels. This specific etching, titled Sunrise, demonstrates his ability to adapt traditional printmaking techniques to the requirements of industrial ceramic production. The work functions as both a standalone study of nature and a functional decorative element. By integrating these motifs into everyday objects, Bracquemond helped to bridge the gap between fine art and the applied arts, a goal shared by many of his contemporaries in the late nineteenth century. The print offers a clear view of his technical skill, showing how he used the etching needle to mimic the fluidity of brushwork found in East Asian ink paintings. It is a refined example of how European artists interpreted foreign aesthetics to create new forms of visual expression.