St. Jeannet is an etching and color aquatint created about 1935 by American artist, Augusta Rathbone (1897-1990). It is pencil signed and inscribed artist proof 6/6. St. Jeannet was printed in Paris by Monsieur Porcabeuf on cream Arches wove paper and the platemark measures 10-5/8 x 14-1/2 inches. St. Jeannet was reproduced in a smaller format then colored with pochoir for inclusion in the 1938 book French Riviera Villages.
The storied village of St. Jeannet is located in the Alpes-Maritimes department of southeast France, about 12.5 miles from Nice. It rests at the foot of the formidable Baou de St. Jeannet, with its secret caves and sheepfolds, and faces the Mediterranean coastline. Though its roots are traced to the medieval times, the majority of its structures and spring-fed fountains were constructed in the mid 17th century. In the far right of the image, Rathbone captured the 18th century bell tower of the Saint-Bernardin chapel, dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. The village, facing full south, is brightly lit against the cliff face. The shape of Baou Mountain once reminded villagers of a crouching animal, similar to a sphinx, and was rumored to house spirits in its many caves. This led to the belief, as well, that the village was full of witches - now purported to have been healers and midwives who were sought after by people throughout the region. Rathbone, like many other artists before her, found inspiration in St. Jeannet, portraying it as a string of light across the bottom third of the plate, a necklace of pearls and gems resting against the collar of the Baou.
Rathbone produced twenty color aquatints of the French Riviera. In 1938 she joined forces with Juliet and Virginia Thompson to create the illustrated book, French Riviera Villages, published that year by Mitchell Kennerly. Twelve of Rathbone’s original color aquatints were reproduced, Juliet Thompson provided photography of the villages, and Virginia Thompson wrote a history on each village. The women joined forces to distribute their book after Kennerly failed to do so.
In 1921, upon graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, Augusta Rathbone continued her studies at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. She also studied with Lucien Simon and, for seven years, with the Spanish artist Claudio Castelucho y Diana. In 1927, at the suggestion of Nora Hamilton of Chicago, Rathbone began to concentrate on printmaking and took her plates to Monsieur Porcabeuf for printing. Her earliest intaglios featured the Sierra Nevada and urban scenes of New York and San Francisco. After World War II, Rathbone returned to Paris but in the face of prohibitive printing costs she taught herself how to print her plates.
Rathbone exhibited at the Salon de Nationale, Paris, in the spring of 1930 and 1931 and in the autumn salon of 1937. Her work was included in the exhibition American Color Prints at the Brooklyn Museum in 1933, and a solo exhibition of her work was mounted at the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1940. She and Elizabeth Ginno showed together at the California State Library in Sacramento in 1952 and again, in 1954, at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. Rathbone's artistic affiliations included memberships in the California Society of Etchers, San Francisco Women Artists, American Artists Professional League, and the National Arts Club.
Augusta Rathbone's work is represented in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York; the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine; the Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; and the Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts.
