The gossip, drypoint and aquatint by Jacques Villon, signed lower right and annotated “ea” for épreuve d'artiste lower left.
Jacques Villon, pseudonym of Gaston Emile Duchamp, is the brother of Marcel Duchamp and Raymond Duchamp-Villon. He moved to Paris in 1894 with his brother Raymond to study law. At the same time, he studied with painter Philippe Zacharie at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Rouen. He abandoned his law studies altogether, carried away by the artistic emulation of Montmartre, where he met Toulouse-Lautrec and began designing posters.
He contributed to a number of publications, including Cocorico, L'assiette au Beurre and Gil Blas. This was a period of intense printmaking, during which he collaborated with Edmond Sagot, a print merchant and pioneer of poster marketing.
The work we present is characteristic of the artist's infatuation with subjects of daily life, influenced by Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec and Helleu.
