Artist: Alfred Louis Brunet-Debaines (French, 1845-1939)
Medium: Original etching on thick laid paper.
Signature: Signed in the plate.
Dimensions: Image Size 6 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches.
Framed Dimensions: Approximately 16 x 18 inches.
Framing: This piece has been professionally matted and framed using all new materials.
Fountains Abbey is one of the largest and best preserved ruined Cistercian monasteries in England. It is located approximately 3 miles south-west of Ripon in North Yorkshire, near the village of Aldfield. Founded in 1132, the abbey operated for 407 years, becoming one of the wealthiest monasteries in England until its dissolution, by order of Henry VIII, in 1539. In 1983, Studley Royal Park including the ruins of Fountains Abbey was purchased by the National Trust. The abbey is maintained by English Heritage.
Alfred-Louis Brunet-Debaines (5 November 1845 – 1939) was a French artist and printmaker who depicted street scenes and architecture, and who was the son of the architect Charles-Louis-Fortuné Brunet-Debaines. In 1863, he began his art studies at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris. During this period he learned etching techniques under masters such as Maxime Lalanne and Jules Ferdinand Jacquemart (1837-1880). Alfred Brunet-Debaines exhibited his first etchings at the Paris Salon in 1866. Around 1870, he was invited to England by writer and critic Philip Gilbert Hamerton who commissioned him to contribute original etchings to his publications, The Portfolio and Etching and Etchers. Brunet-Debaines thus spent a considerable part of his prolific career in London and Scotland, and regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1872 and 1886. Museums in France and England include examples of his etchings in their permanent collections. In 1882, he was elected a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers. Museums in France and England include examples of his etchings in their permanent collections. Many of his works appeared in The Art Journal, an important Victorian annual dedicated to the visual arts and publishing original etchings by artists such as Axel Haig, James McNeill Whistler, Seymour Haden, Hubert von Herkomer, John MacWhirter, Birket Foster and others.