Armand Coussens

Landscape & Portrait Painter; Etcher Landscape, rural types, the life in small provincial cities find in Coussens an enthusiastic interpreter. An old woman with goats, a street vendor of oranges, a hawker resting under a tree, an impression of a harbour or of an open-air market yield exquisite plates of delicate colouring. Coussens' oeuvre numbers now over one hundred plates. A great colour etcher of the early twentieth century, Armand Coussens studied at the Ecole des Beaux-arts in Nimes. Upon graduation he lived and worked in Paris for the following ten years. There both his paintings and etchings were frequently exhibited at major salons such as the Societe des Artistes Francais and at l'hotel Drouot. Coussens then moved back to his studio in Nimes where he continued to create his beautiful colour etchings of landscapes and figure studies. Today examples of his art are included in prominent public collections in New York, London, Tokyo and Paris. As a leading colour etcher, Coussens's art was often appreciated for his use of combining the thick, velvety lines of drypoint engraving with the delicate lines of soft-ground etching. Such techniques gave his art unique tonal values.