René GROEBLI - KH559, Rail Magic, 1949

Hand Heliogravure on Hahnemuhle wove paper
Signed in pencil lower left
Blind stamp of the printer, Pierre Brochet, lower right
Sheet size : 39,7 x 30,2 cm

Hand heliogravure, hardly used now but very popular in the later 19th century, involves the photographic transfer of the image to a copper plate, prepared with aquatint to give it tone, into which the design is etched. The plate is then hand-inked and printed from in the same way as an ordinary intaglio plate.

Rail Magic is a photographic essay shot in 1949 with Leica and twinlens Rolleiflex in France, mostly in Paris and its suburbs, followed by a rail trip from Paris to Basel on an express steam locomotive