Artist: Alfred Louis Brunet-Debaines (1845-1939)
Medium: Original Copper Plate Etching on Thick Laid Paper
Signature: Signed in the plate, lower left.
Dimensions: Image Size 5 1/4 x 7 inches
Framed Dimensions: Approximately 15 1/2 x 17 3/8 inches.
Framing: Gallery Matted and Framed in a New Solid Wood Moulding.
Oxford Castle is a large, partly ruined Norman medieval castle on the western side of central Oxford in Oxfordshire, England. Most of the original moated, wooden motte and bailey castle was replaced in stone in the late 12th or early 13th century and the castle played an important role in the conflict of the Anarchy. In the 14th century the military value of the castle diminished and the site became used primarily for county administration and as a prison. The surviving, rectangular St George’s Tower is now believed to pre-date the remainder of the castle and be a watch tower associated with the original Saxon west gate of the city. Most of the castle was destroyed in the English Civil War and by the 18th century the remaining buildings had become Oxford’s local prison. A new prison complex was built on the site from 1785 onwards and expanded in 1876; this became HM Prison Oxford. The prison closed in 1996 and was redeveloped as a hotel. The medieval remains of the castle, including the motte and St George’s Tower and crypt, are Grade I listed buildings and a Scheduled Monument.
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.