A painter by training in the Barbizon tradition, studying with the famous painter-etcher, Jean-Baptiste Corot, Appian turned to etching around the 1860s and became one of its most skilled and creative practitioners. His graphic work demonstrates attention to atmospheric effects and an abiding interest in contrasts between light and dark. Always a master of variations of tone and texture, Appian contrasts the wispy lines of the clouds in the sky, the delicate vertical lines in the foreground, and the strongly inked and contorted lines of the trees and marsh plants.
