had refused all allusions necessarily too briefly to this admirable and unique service, decorated by Bracquemond with Japanese motifs borrowed from the poultry yard and the fish ponds, the most beautiful crockery I have ever known. Each piece, the plates even, wants its special description. I am satisfied, one last time, to claim the priority of Parisian work, picturesque and spiritual on British plagiarism..." . Mallarmé quoted Deck, Collinot and Rousseau, who had "totally renewed French ceramics": "I should particularly mention, as a translation of the high Japanese charm made by a very French spirit, the table service asked, boldly, for the master Aquafortiste Bracquemond: where struts, enhanced with joyous colors, the ordinary hosts of the poultry yard and fish ponds." Mallarmé himself possessed pieces of the service, published during the period 1866-1875. Félix Bracquemond also worked for the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres in 1870, giving his works a new orientation that preludes the modern style. He also accepted the position of artistic director of the Parisian studio of the firm Charles Haviland of Limoges. Other Work and Later Life A close friend of Édouard Manet, James McNeill Whistler, and Henri Fantin-Latour, he is represented in the latter's paintings, Hommage à Delacroix, 1864, preserved in Paris at the Musée d'Orsay and Toast with the Truth of 1865, destroyed by the artist. He married Marie Quivoron, a painter known as Marie Bracquemond, on 5 August 1869, in Paris. Their son, Pierre, claimed that Felix was jealous and critical of Marie's work. His beratement caused Marie to cease painting. He is also the author of a book entitled Du dessin et la couleur, published in 1886, very much appreciated by Vincent van Gogh, and a study on woodcutting and lithography. His best engravings are devoted either to landscapes or to animals: Reeds and teals (1882), Les Hirondelles (1882), Les Mouettes (1888). He was honored as an Officer of the Legion of Honor in 1889. Gabriel P. Weisberg called him the "molder of artistic taste in his time". Indeed, it was he who recognised the beauty of the Hokusai woodcuts used as packing around a shipment of Japanese china, a discovery which helped change the look of late 19th-century art. He died in Sèvres. References 19th-century French painters French male painters 20th-century French painters 20th-century French male artists French etchers Officiers of the Légion d'honneur 1833 births 1914 deaths 20th-century French printmakers 19th-century