The Owl, 1883, Félix Buhot, French, 1847-1898, 17 9/16 x 12 7/8 in. (44.61 x 32.7 cm) (plate)19 7/16 x 14 1/4 in. (49.37 x 36.2 cm) (sheet), Etching and drypoint on ivory paper with inscriptions in red crayon, France, 19th century, The nocturnal world of darkness and dreams kept a firm grip on Félix Buhot. His personal emblem was an owl, which in Spanishbúhosounds like his name. Here the owl's shadow takes the form of Buhot’s silhouette. Vignettes surround the central image: Paris street scenes, a ship, an artist's palette, a train on a viaduct, and so on. Such borders were a hallmark of Buhot’s work. He called them 'marges symphoniques' (symphonic margins) for both their complexity and their similarity to the images that music stimulates in the imagination.