Cover design for "Le Jour et la Nuit"
Félix Bracquemond French
Not on view
Bracquemond made this design for the cover of an unrealized Impressionist print publication titled "Le Jour et la nuit" (Day and Night). His graphic treatment plays with the contrast of black and white inherent to printmaking. Radiating dashed lines surrounding "Le Jour" (Day) suggest sunbeams and the thick black script stands out against the blank paper, while "Nuit" (Night) appears in reserve against an area saturated in inky black, the curving form of the letters echoing the crescent moon. Bracquemond collaborated on the project with Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt, Camille Pissarro, and Jean-François Raffaelli, who all prepared works for inclusion. After the publication failed to materialize, they each showed impressions of their prints at the fifth Impressionist exhibition in 1880.
