L'Agonie des Fleurs (Black and White Version)

This still life is Roussel’s best-known print and represents the culmination of his experiments in combining soft ground and aquatint with line etching. The powerful effect of rich blacks, subtle grays, and sensitively placed brighter, unetched areas elevates the unpretentious subject matter—an arrangement of dying flowers in a vase of decorative stoneware, which was readily available for purchase in late 19th-century London.