Auguste Del?tre

(b Paris, 1822; d Paris, 26 July 1907). French printmaker. From the age of 12 he worked for the same jobbing printer, but c. 1840-41 he was employed by two well-known printmakers, Charles Jacque and Louis Marvy (1815-50), to handle their presses. Jacque and Marvy taught him how to paint and draw, and his experience with them turned him into an artist's printer. He then set up his own studio. In 1848 he completed his first series of etchings, mainly landscape scenes. Although Del?tre was versatile in the various forms of etching, he is best known for the excellence and sensitivity of his work as a printer. He developed the 'mobile etching' technique, a way of painting ink on to the plate so that up to 40 unique impressions could be made from the same plate, rather than a uniformly wiped edition. This skill served the Impressionists and influenced the practice of monotype in such artists as Ludovic Lepic and Degas. It also inspired fierce debate on the question of printer intrusion. He quickly established a considerable reputation and soon became the only printer to whom the majority of talented etchers would entrust their work. His print shop became a meeting place for such etchers as Charles-Fran?ois Daubigny and James McNeill Whistler. The cult of Japonisme is said to have begun there through the Hokusai manga ('Sketches by Hokusai', 1814-34) he owned.

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