Subject
A countryman performs a manual task while standing in a punt amongst some trees. He reaches towards the prow of the boat with both hands in order to lift a two-handled basket from inside the hull.
Printed text from a book at top right. Signed in pencil bottom right. Later inscriptions in pencil: bottom left of sheet ‘691. 6865.’ bottom right ‘man in a punt’
There is no direct equivalent in A catalogue of the etchings, drypoints and lithographs, by Professor Alphonse Legros (1837-1911) in the collection of Frank E. Bliss, either in English or French, for the title Man in a Punt. However, the sheet is annotated ‘691.’ Therefore; either this Bliss no. 691 - omitted from the catalogue raisonné, or is another work unknown to Bliss, or is an etching listed in under another title which has no descriptive information that would allow the etching to be identified.
Printing
Printed on laid paper taken from a book; fragmentary text "INTERP. " le parlement, chambre des comptes et cour" suggests that the subject might have been the Cour des comptes, a specialised court in France under the Ancien Régime responsible for auditing royal and state accounts. Further text on the reverse, top left partly obscured by mount, ‘Mercæur & Joyeuse’ .
