Raphael Drouart is the last featured art-maker in my series on new works in the on-line Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection from the artistic circle of Maurice Denis, the Early Modern master of French sacred art. Denis was Drouart's instructor in a Parisian art school and took him on as his assistant in a prestigious mural painting project. The future printmaker always considered himself a disciple of Denis and his refined Italiante decorative style. A gentle giant of a man who was a passionate boxer until the age of 30, Drouart used his combat-scarred hands to create delicate graphic works of dancing nymphs, fallen angels, and saints in ecstasy. Of the over 500 prints he created between 1913 and 1960 more than 75 pieces depict biblical scenes, represented by a sampling of prints in the gallery of the new Drouart biosketch page. An innovative printmaker, Drouart developed a technique of "black smoke etching," using sanded copper plates blackened with lamp soot to create subtle passages from dark to light suggestive of mystical visions. (John Kohan)