Manuel Robbe or A. Lafitte (1872-1936)

An Epiphany.
Or perhaps this is a slight exaggeration?


A.Lafitte, Coastal Scene. Aquatint ca. 1925, 70x50cm.
Original frame from the 1930's.

 Nevertheless - My Mother spent several years in France between WWI and II.
Among the pictures and other memorabilia that she brought home was this picture, signed by a certain A. Lafitte - probably with a pristine white frame when she bought it, now with a slight sense of age in the paper - and yet, still with brilliant colours and no foxing.
I have always liked this aquatint etching and many times speculated who this artist, A. Lafitte could be, but never found a chance to solve the riddle. Until now. I even remember that we had a smaller picture by the same artist, another couple of ships, but I must admit, that I have managed to lose it during my many moves.
Alphonse Lafitte apparently was a psudonym, under which the Belle Epoque artist Manuel Robbe began to work after 1920, until his death in 1936. He used it rather exclusively for his marine and Brittany paintings and aquatints, perhaps because he wanted to create a more commercial image than as expressed in his many well-known pictures of more or less dressed women - usually less!
he was well educated, specialising in etchings and aquatints and had learnt at an early stage how to master the printing in many colours from one etching.
How on earth would I have known that before the age of the Internet?
There is no doubt that this etching only survived because of my love of ships!

Oh, and value?
Probably not enormous, unfortunately, but other Robbe etchings of this size sell at auction for $500-$1500, so the small etching means a loss of $100-200.
In the grand scale of life's other losses it means nothing - except that the loss of art always is a sad thing.