The Acid-Thrower
Portfolio Titlel'Estampe originale, Album VI of IX
Original Language TitleLa Vitrioleuse
Artist
Eugène Samuel Grasset
(French, 1841 - 1917)
Printer
Verdoux, Ducourtioux & Huillard
(French)
Date1894
MediumPhoto-relief print, with hand-stenciled color on laid paper
DimensionsSheet: 15 1/2 x 10 3/4 inches (39.37 x 27.305 cm)
Mat: 21 3/4 x 17 1/8 inches (55.245 x 43.5102 cm)
Mat: 21 3/4 x 17 1/8 inches (55.245 x 43.5102 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. George C. Dillon
Object numberF99-14/3
Signedbottom margin, pencil: "Grasset No. 53"
Edition/State/Proof53/100
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionAgainst a buff background with swirling cloud-like red streamers, is a half-length three-quarter profile of a blue-eyed woman with dark cascading reddish-brown hair. She wears a high-collared, long-sleeved black dress and holds a small blue bowl in her right hand. The liquid in the bowl and the flesh of her hand have the same pale green hue. The figure and the whole picture were outlined in black.Exhibition History[no known exhibition history is present at this time]
This print was inspired by the 1877 trial of Widow Gras, a woman who coerced a workman into throwing acid at her former lover. Grasset chose to cast a woman as the villainous actor, exemplifying the way male artists projected their fears onto women. The figure’s green skin creates a sickening contrast against the agitated orange sky. Acid sloshes in the bowl in her hand as she turns to look over her shoulder. Notice how her hair curls into devilish, horn-like tendrils, an indicator of her vengeful nature.
Documenta Gallery, Paris;
Mr. and Mrs. George Chaffee (1923-2013) and Joan (née Kent, 1925-2009) Dillon, Kansas City, MO, by April 5-May 17, 1999;
Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1999.
l’Estampe originale, album VI (ca. March 1893-Spring 1895).
Victor Arwas, Berthon et Grasset (Paris: Academy editions, 1978), no. 34.
Patricia Eckert Boyer and Philip Dennis Cate, l’Éstampe originale: Artistic Printmaking in France, 1893-1895, exh. cat. (Princeton, NJ, 1991).
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