La Fontaine, fables, Le fermier, le chien et le renard. Gravure originale à l'Eau Forte sur papier Vergé

Original etching before letters enhanced with aquatint and signed in the plate.
Created on laid paper at the request of publisher A. QUANTIN to illustrate La Fontaine's fable: "The Farmer, the Dog and the Fox".
Very fine condition, presented in a modern black mat and protected by a tissue guard.
Auguste Delierre (1829-1891) is referenced in Bénézit, dictionary of painters, sculptors, draughtsmen and engravers: "history painter, genre scenes, animated landscapes, still lifes, illustrator. A pupil of Eugène Ciceri, he participated in the Paris Salon between 1852 and 1889. His compositions of landscapes animated with hunting dogs show the influence of the works of Desportes and Oudry which he long copied. He shows moreover a predilection for still lifes. He also illustrated the Fables of La Fontaine." Alain-Marie Bassy in his book "Les Fables de La Fontaine, quatre siècles d'illustration" analyzes his style for the representation of fables: "If he seeks the same angle of view on the animal as Gustave Doré, he dismisses any sense of terror. The bird wounded by an arrow is no longer a large migratory bird but the deliciously colored quail of still lifes. [...] Before [the animals among which we live], Delierre's eye is as cold as that of an entomologist. The art of the fable becomes in his hands the finest example of pictorial naturalism." A deluxe edition in two volumes: Fables de La Fontaine. Edition illustrated with 75 etched plates by A. Delierre, Paris, Quantin, 1883, is catalogued at the Bibliothèque Nationale. The etchings of the fables are before letters and enclosed in beautiful Louis XVI frames."