L'Estampe originale

L’Estampe originale is widely regarded as one of greatest print collaborations in the history of printmaking. With contributions by 74 artists, the series was conceived as a celebration of the original print, and especially of colour lithography, which was popular with the younger generation of artists inspired by the flat colours and strong contours of Japanese woodcuts. Of the 95 prints included in the complete portfolio, sixty are lithographs, 33 of which are in colours. The remaining prints include 26 intaglio prints, seven woodcuts, one wood engraving and one gypsograph. Between March 1893 and March 1895 nine albums were issued quarterly: the first eight instalments consisted of ten prints loose in paper wrappers, the final instalment included 14 prints and was issued with grey board covers to enclose all nine albums. Such was its popularity that by 1898 the whole edition was sold out.

Donald Karshan attributed the success of this enormous undertaking not only to the entrepreneurial talents of the publisher André Marty’s but also to the period, ‘when a resurgence of interest in printmaking as an original art form was just beginning to take place – a sort of pent-up feeling among artists that the print process, bolstered by the advent of colour lithography, could indeed be summoned for artistic expression…in a sense, L’Estampe originale became a collective proclamation of the regeneration of printmaking as a fine art’ (L’Estampe originale – A Catalogue Raisonné, The Museum of Graphic Art, New York, 1970, p. 4).

It is extremely rare to find complete sets of L’Estampe originale, as works by artists such as Bonnard, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Vuillard and Signac became even more sought after in the early years of the 20th century, leading to their works being taken out and sold individually, leaving the majority of albums broken up. This particular set is unusual in that it remains almost completely intact, lacking only the final sheet of the ninth issue, a solitary L’Estampe originale blindstamp on Japan paper and the grey board covers. The blindstamp, representing a half-length nude woman seen from the back and holding a plate or a drawing board, was designed by Alexandre Charpentier and is embossed on each print in the series as well as on a medallion pasted onto the grey board cover. Although Charpentier is listed on Toulouse-Lautrec’s lithographic cover for the ninth issue as a contributor, the final sheet was omitted from any listing or description of L’Estampe originale prior to Donald Karshan’s and Donna Stein’s catalogue raisonné published in 1970. Unsigned and unnumbered, it appears to have been largely overlooked as a fine art print up to that point.

We are aware of seven sets in public collections: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; Brooklyn Museum, New York (lacking the original boards); Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, Georgia; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo (formerly from the Josefowitz collection); The Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (composite set). To our knowledge only two other comparable sets have been offered at auction in the last 45 years: Kornfeld & Klipstein, 18 June 1970, lot 430 (complete, with original boards – CHF 111,000); and Sotheby’s, London, 2 December 1993, lot 208 (composite set, with original boards - £216,000).







The contributing artists were:

First issue (January - March 1893): Georges Auriel, Louis Anquetin, Pierre Bonnard (Roger Marx, Bouvet 4), Maurice Denis (Cailler 70), Henri-Gabriel Ibels, Charles Maurin, Paul-Elie Ranson (Ranson-Bitker & Genty 113), Ker-Xavier Roussel (Salomon 10), Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (Wittrock 3), Félix Vallotton (Vallotton & Goerg 110), Edouard Vuillard (Roger Marx 2)

Second issue (April – June 1893): Georges Auriol, Henri Boutet, Charles-Marie Dulac, Henri-Charles Guérard, Charles Guilloux, Henri Rachou, Jean-François Raffaeli, Odilon Redon (Mellerio 126), Auguste Rodin (Delteil 9), Paul Sérusier

Third issue (July – September 1893): Albert Besnard, Henri-Patrice Dillon, Henri Fantin-Latour (Hédiard 110), Auguste-Louis Lepère, Alexandre Lunois, Maxime Maufra, Victor-Emile Prouvé, Carlos Schwabe, Victor Vignon, Adolphe-Léon Willette

Fourth issue (October – December 1893): Félix Bracquemond, Eugène Carrière (D. 15), Jules Chéret, Henri de Groux, Pierre Roche, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Pierre-Auguste Renoir (D. 27; Stella 27), Henri Rivière, Félicien Rops, James Abbott McNeill Whistler (Way 46; Levy 74; Spink, Stratis & Tedeschi 72)

Fifth issue (January – March 1894): Emile Bernard (Morane 10), Ernest-Ange Duez, Antonio de la Gandara, Norbert Goeneute, Paul César Helleu, Camille Martin, Camille Pissarro (D. 70), Lucien Pissarro, Henri Somm, T. P. Wagner

Sixth issue (April – June 1894): Eugène Delâtre, Georges de Feure, Paul Gauguin (Kornfeld 23), Eugène Grasset, Henri-Charles Guérard, René-Georges Hermann-Paul, Henri-Gustave Jossot, Maximilien Luce, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (W. 58), Adolphe-Léon Willette

Seventh issue (July – September 1894): Philippe-Charles Blache, Alexandre-Louis-Marie Charpentier, Charles Lacoste, Georges Pissarro, Victor-Emile Prouvé, Charles Ricketts, Théo van Rysselberghe, Armand Séguin, Charles Shannon, Paul Signac (Kornfeld & Wick 6)

Eight issue (October – December 1894): Albert Besnard, Charles-Marie Dulac, Charles-Louis Houdard, Henri-Georges Ibels, William Nicholson (Campbell 5), Joseph Pennell (Wuerth 247), Richard Ranft, Paul Renouard, William Rothenstein, Félix Vallotton (Vallotton & Goerg 148)

Ninth issue (March 1895): Albert Besnard, Eugène Carrière (D. 18), Walter Crane, Antonio de la Gandara, Charles Meunier, Camille Pissarro (D. 142), Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Odilon Redon (M. 132), Pierre-Auguste Renoir (D., S. 9), Pierre Roche, Félicien Rops, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (W. 96), Adolphe-Léon Willette