This framed print belongs to a set of colour prints made by painter and etcher Theodore Roussel in the 1890s. Each print was the result of considerable experimentation and is printed in colours ground and mixed by the artist. Each is mounted on one of two etched mounts also designed by the artist and printed in a range of colours selected especially for the image. The mounts are paired with two frame patterns again designed, etched and printed by the artist in a range of colours especially selected for the ensemble. According to Roussel, he did this arrangement to create "a harmony of colour, each proof so presented being the result sometimes of as many as twenty four or even a greater number of printings."* The mounted and framed prints were exhibited for the first time at the Goupil Gallery in 1899. This is the only known surviving complete framed set. They came from 'a house in Parson's Green', which is where Roussel lived, and are likely to have been the set in his house.

Roussel was born in Britanny and educated in Paris. In 1874 he moved to England. It was at Whistler's suggestion that he took up etching, developing the master's highly personal and private vision into public decorative works intended for the domestic interior. His approach to colour printing was revolutionary and fundamental to printing in colours in the twentieth century. In 1910 he became the first President of the Society of Graver Printers in Colour. This set, issued at the end of the nineteenth century, has a key place in the development of the print from the private 'portfolio' works to public pieces with a decorative role akin to painting.

Reference: *'Roussel's Note and Catalogue of Original Etchings printed in colours, Exhibited at Goupil's, July 1899', reproduced in Mackay, Appendix III (see references).