Le chardon doré is a mezzotint from 2002 by American-born, French artist Judith Rothchild. It is pencil signed, titled and editioned 16/60. Le chardon doré was printed by the artist on ivory wove Hahnemuhle paper and the image measures 9-3/4 by 7-13/16 inches.
Rothchild brings elegance to the lowly thistle with her luminous mezzotint. The thistle heads are supported on erect, spineless stems with curving leaves. The base of the flower head is surrounded by clusters of modified leaves, called bracts. Thistles rely on wind to disperse their seeds which are attached to a feather pappus or parachute-like structure. Nature has provided a means for the wind to disperse the seeds of the lowly thistle over great distances.
Judith Rothchild, printmaker and painter, was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1950. Between the years 1968 and 1970, she studied at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York and the Art Students' League in New York City, as well as the Boston University Tanglewood Summer Institute. In 1970, she began her studies in visual arts at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she received her B.A. degree in Fine Arts in 1972.
That same year, she moved to Europe to continue her training at the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna. Since 1996, she has devoted herself to mezzotint printmaking, for which she has established a strong international reputation. Rothchild has exhibited widely, including at the Francis Kyle Gallery in London, VII Bienal Internacional Gravura in Portugal, the National Theater in London, Salon International de l'Estampe in France, Art Expo in New York, Salon d'Automne in Paris, Estampa in Madrid, National Museum of Woman in the Arts in Washington, D.C., and Villa des Roses in France, among many others.
Rothchild's work is included in numerous international public collections including, but not limited to, the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; musée Fabre, Montpellier; musée de Bédarieux; Imperial College, London; Harvard University; Yale University; Smith College; New York Public Library; Victoria and Albert Museum; Gulbenkian Foundation; and Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Since 1994, Judith Rothchild has lived in a small village in the Languedoc region of France and she has produced at least twenty-one livres d'artiste since 1997.
Rothchild wrote about her work: “For me, mezzotint is pure drawing. I work to find the light deep within the velvety surface of the plate, directly on the copper, based on the subject or, sometimes, based on a drawing made while traveling. The work is accomplished in successive layers, and the plate retains the memory of each hand gesture. The final proof, often richer and more precise than a drawing can be, brings together hours of burnishing. The density of the black also adds to the perception of a super-reality.”
