Félix Bracquemond

Bracquemond began his career as a designer for ceramics. He later participated in the revival of etched illustration in France long after lithography had superceded the technique. He strove to align etching with painting and to etch his designs himself rather than employing a middleman etcher. This drawing depicts the giant, Gargantua, during a battle scene from the novel Gargantua et Pantagruel by the French Renaissance author François Rabelais. It illustrates an episode in which Gargantua pulls a large tree out of the ground to use as a staff; simultaneously, his mare relieves herself on the enemy below, causing the country to flood and the enemy to drown.