The second state, before the polka dots in the dress

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), La Porte de L’Estaminet, etching and roulette, 1925, the preliminary drawing, the etching in the second state (of 3), and the etching in the third state (of 3).  Sylvain Laboureur 294; total impressions printed 85. The third state impression is inscribed “imp” lower left and numbered (54/65), also signed lower left, and titled lower in the margin. The second state impression is signed and numbered 7/7. The drawing is initialed in pencil lower right.  Each impression and the drawing in good condition.  Plate size for the prints: 5 7/8 x 3 3/4 inches, each with wide margins. The drawing is 6 x 3 3/4 inches (the sheet 6 5/8 x 4 5/8 inches). The second and third state impressions are on a cream wove paper, the drawing is on a yellow tracing paper.

Provenance for the second state impression and drawing: Henri Petiet Collection (initials stamp verso; this stamp not in Lugt;  cf Lugt 2021a).

In La Porte de L’Estaminet Laboureur introduces a very fine roulette tint for shading around the head of the girl, around the windows, and in the tiles and spaces just behind the girl.

The drawing is a shade higher than the print; the artist draws the last letters of the word “Estaminet” nearly completely in the drawing, but cuts the tops of the letters in the print. He also shaves some of the right hand area shown in the drawing from the print.

La Porte de L’Estaminet is surely one of Laboureur’s most successful and charming small compositions.

$6000 for set of 3; $1400 for an impression of state 3 alone.

The third state, with the polka dots in the dress.

The drawing (without the polka dots!)

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), La Fille au Litre (Grande Planche), engraving, 1921, signed in pencil lower left and inscribed “ep d’art”. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 217, third state (of 3), the trial proof (or one of the five impressions “hors-tirage”, the edition was 65. In excellent condition, remains of prior hinging verso, printed on a cream wove paper with full margins, 8 3/8 x 7 1/8, the sheet 12 3/4 x 9 3/4 inches.

A fine impression.

Perhaps Laboureur’s most famous engraved portrait,  made in his incomparable cubist manner, and a stunning example of his use of engraving within his mature cubism phase.  He was apparently inspired by a photograph by Eugene Atget (Md. de vin rue Boyer 262, 1908).

$3500

Detail

First state with extensive drawing in pencil

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Tea-Room Du Front Anglais, etching and engraving, 1919-1923.  Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 189. Four sheets: the drawing for the print, an impression of the first state (of 2), an impression of the first state extensively drawn over in pencil in preparation for the second state, and an impression of the canceled plate.

The drawing: in pen and pencil, signed, titled and dated, with margins, 8 3/8 x 7 15/16 inches, the sheet 11 1/4 x 10 inches, on a thin tan wove tracing paper, in generally good condition, with tack holes in margins, with the Henri Petiet stamp verso (cf. Lugt 2021a). The drawing is sketched in pencil, then completed in pen.

The first state: signed in pencil and numbered; an impression with oily printing which gives many lines a stained or rusted look, on thin wove with margins, 8 7/8 x 8 3/8, the sheet 12 1/2 x 93/4 inches, ex Collection Petiet (with his stamp verso)

The first state as worked over in pencil in fantastic detail. Laboureur here draws in the extensive shadowing and linear development in preparation for the next state, giving the viewer an unusual insight into the workings of Laboureur’s printmaking genius.  On Van Gelder Zonen cream wove, in good condition, with margins, 9 x 8 1/2, the sheet 12 x 11 1/4 inches.

An impression of the canceled plate, in good condition, ex Collection Petiet (with his stamp verso)

$6500 the set

Detail of state 1 with pencil additions

The drawing for Tea Room Du Front Anglais

Detail from the drawing of Tea-Room Du Front Anglais

L'Arrivee du Poisson (Arrival of the Fishes), L. 706

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Quatre Images Bretonnes, album of 4 woodcuts, 1912-14, signed on the justification page and numbered 18. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 681, 695, 698, 706; second states (of 2), from the edition of 130 on Arches paper (there were an additional 10 issued on Japan, and L. 681, 695, and 698 were also issued in editions of 35-40 prior to the album).  Including: the Title Page; justification page, index page, and the four woodcuts. In generally good condition, a nick on the cover edge, browning toward paper edges. The full sheets, printed in black on a wove Arches paper, the full sheets 22 1/4 x 19 1/2 inches.

Very good impressions of these early cubist works.

The album includes these woodcuts: Les Matelots (L. 681), 1912, 13 3/4 x 13 3/4 inches; Le Calvaire Breton (L. 695), 1913, 14 1/2 x 11 5/8 inches; La Rentree au Port (L. 698), 1913, 9 3/4 x 14 inches; L’Arrivee du Poisson (L. 706), 1914, 11 5/8 x 11 5/8 inches.

These works were done in the years 1912-1914, and so were separated chronologically in the Loyer catalogue of Laboureur’s graphic work; they were regrouped as a set for the Sylvain Laboureur catalogue.

The album is of substantial interest insofar as it documents a turning point in the influence of cubism on Laboureur’s work: in the earlier works (L. 681, 695)  one sees the modernist imagery which Laboureur had begun to employ by this time, and in the only slightly later works (L. 698 of 1913 and L. 706 of 1914) one can see the blossoming of Laboureur’s personalized cubism. Indeed, La Rentree au Port, shown at the Salon d’Automne in 1913, was widely commented on by contemporary critics as influenced by cubism, while retaining the personal idiosyncracies that Laboureur was known for; the last woodcut (L. 706) is also a quite successful interpretation of cubism, again very different in means and manner from the first two cuts.

$850 the set of 4

Le Calvaire Breton (L. 693)

La Rentree au Port (L. 698)

Les Matelots Ivres (The Drunken Sailors) (L. 681)

Le Tir Forain (L. 715.7)

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Images De L’Arrière, 1918, portfolio of 9 (of 10) woodcuts, with complete text, title page (including the woodcut frontispiece).  Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 715.A and 715.2-10 (not 715.1), second state (of 2). One of the 380 numbered copies, numbered 145 on the justification page. Printed by Francois Bernouard, Paris; published by a La Belle Edition, Paris, in the original printed paper folder, the woodcuts loose as issued. In  good condition (some pin pricks in left margins not affecting images), the full sheets, 8 1/4 x 9 3/8, the sheets 8 1/8 x 9 1/2 inches.

Printed on cream laid paper, with watermarks MBM France and INGRES d’Arches.

Fine impressions of these very successful small compositions, each representing life behind the front during World War I.

$1800

La Bonne Galette (L. 715.2)

La Lettre de l'Alabama (L. 715.3)

Le Permissionnaire a la Campagne (L. 715.8)

Le Gramophone: the woodcut

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Le Gramophone, 1918-21, woodcut – both the woodblock and a print from the block. The print is signed in pencil lower left, and numbered lower right (24/45) [also initialed in the block lower right].  Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 712, only state, total printing of 45 impressions. Both in excellent condition; the print on a cream wove paper, a nick at left edge, some handling folds in margins; the full sheet with deckle edges, both the print and block are 9 3/4 x 8 1/2, the sheet 17 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches. The block is about 3/4 inch thick.

Provenance: the block: Henri Petiet (with his stamp verso, Lugt supplement 2021a)

A fine impression of both the print and block. The latter is black, as inked, with a white/chalk surface where the block was cut.

Though Laboureur worked on this block starting in 1918, according to his notes, he finished it in 1921, and took impressions in 1922. But the notion of using the gramophone (a prequel to the record player, which came before all sorts of current devices for playing music) as the basis for compositions came as early as 1916, when he created an engraving (L. 156) with a similar composition as a frontispiece for X-M Boulestin’s Aspects Sentimentale du Front Anglais (and of course this is WWI, soldiers playing records, drinking). In this volume Boulestin wrote: “Ah! Le precieux instant d’ardeur sentimentale! Jamais, jamais nous n’avions tant aime la vie! Mais quand se tait le magique gramophone, on tousse, on se secoue et on se verse un autre whisky-and-soda. L’emotion s’est enfuie”

$12,000 the set of wood block and woodcut

Le Gramophone: the wood block

Asperges et Radii, engraving, state 4

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Asperges et Radis, engraving, 1928, impressions of each of the four states of the engraving, and the preliminary pencil drawing (in reverse, see illustration below). Each of the engravings signed and numbered, the drawing initialled and dated.  Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 384, four states, about 75 impressions printed in all four states, 35 in the edition in the fourth state. 7 x 9 1/2 inches, 165 x 225 mm.

Provenance: Henri Petiet, with his initials (HMP) stamp verso (not in Lugt) states 2 and 4.

The drawing is 6 1/4 x 9 1/8 inches, in pencil, in reverse. The drawing was reproduced in the Godefroy catalogue raisonne of the Laboureur prints, page. 29.

State 1: signed in pencil and numbered 4/7, in good condition, on a green wove paper.

State: 2: signed in pencil, numbered 2/8, with lines added to the bottles, under the radishes at left, above radishes on left, and shading lines aded throughout.  On cream wove paper, with the HMP stamp verso.

State 3: pencil signed, numbered 8/9, added shading behind asparagus at left, added strokes at bottom and under leaf at bottom.

State 4: signed and numbered 12/35, cream wove, with the monogram, some additional flecks of engraving on radishes, and outside shadowning; soft folds.

A fine set, all progress proofs and the drawing, for one of Laboureur’s iconic images.

$8500 set of 5

Asperges et Radi, the drawing for the engraving (in reverse)

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Sortie de Theatre a Londres, etching and drypoint, 1911, signed in pencil lower left [also signed and dated in the plate upper right]. Reference: Laboureur 104, third state (of 3).  Published for La Societe des amis de l’eau-forte, with the blindstamp with the inscription: Circle Librairie Estampes. From an edition in the third state of 109; there were also 5 impressions of the first state and five of the second state. In excellent condition, the full sheet with deckle edges bottom and sides, 6 3/4 x 14; a remarque lower left 2 x 3 1/2, the sheet 12 3/4 x 19 3/4 inches.

Provenance:  unknown collector’s mark verso (GOE in oval)

A fine rich impression, printed in dark brown ink on cream laid paper with the Arches watermark.

The small remarque lower left is actually another print printed on a separate plate; it shows a man running after a London horse-drawn trolley.

Although Sortie is dated 1911 Laboureur apparently drew the model for this etching much earlier, in 1909 or late 1908. In the autumn of 1908 he took up residence in London, occupying a space in Chelsea. One can discern a modernist approach entering his work here, and also perhaps some of the English penchant for satire and exaggeration, as exemplified in the work of Hogarth and Rowlandson – certainly the characters, especially the women leaving this theatre are, in Laboureur’s rendering, larger than life.

$1350

]]> http://harrisschrank.com/sortie-de-theatre-a-londres.htm/feed 0 http://harrisschrank.com/paysage-aux-buttes-chaumont-1re-planche.htm http://harrisschrank.com/paysage-aux-buttes-chaumont-1re-planche.htm#comments Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:32:55 +0000 Harris Schrank http://harrisschrank.com/?p=3066 Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Paysage aux Buttes-Chaumont (First Plate), etching, 1920,  signed in pencil lower left, numbered (2/8) and inscribed imp, also titled. Reference: Laboureur 204, only state. In very good condition, the full sheet, some thin spots in margins verso. 7 7/8 x 9, the sheet 10 5/8 x 14 1/4 inches. A fine impression of this rare plate, printed on cream wove paper. Laboureur made only 10 impressions in all, two trial proofs and 8 numbered. He later made another version (L. 205). Conceived by the architect Haussmann in the late 19th century, the Buttes-Chaumont is a sweeping romantic-style [...]]]>

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Paysage aux Buttes-Chaumont (First Plate), etching, 1920,  signed in pencil lower left, numbered (2/8) and inscribed imp, also titled. Reference: Laboureur 204, only state. In very good condition, the full sheet, some thin spots in margins verso. 7 7/8 x 9, the sheet 10 5/8 x 14 1/4 inches.

A fine impression of this rare plate, printed on cream wove paper.

Laboureur made only 10 impressions in all, two trial proofs and 8 numbered. He later made another version (L. 205).

Conceived by the architect Haussmann in the late 19th century, the Buttes-Chaumont is a sweeping romantic-style park whose dramatic (albeit primarily man-made) bluffs, waterfalls, and rolling green hills provide a welcome sense of space and fresh air to overcrowded Parisians.

$1150

Detail

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Eau Fraiche, woodcut, 1907, signed and numbered (10/30). Reference: Godefry, Sylvain Laboureur 633, second state (of 2). On a cream laid Japan paper, in good condition (slight folding at corner tips). From the series Toilettes.

Provenance: ex Collection Alfred Bourdeley (Lugt 421), with his collector’s stamp bottom right recto.

A fine impression of this early Modernist woodcut.

Jean-Emile Laboureur traveled to Paris in 1895 intending to study law at the Sorbonne, but found himself drawn to the nearby famed Academie Julian, and although he never officially matriculated there, he became immersed in the Parisian art scene. The great wood engraver Auguste Lepere taught him woodcutting, which initiated Laboureur in an involvement in printmaking that would extend through his career. In 1886 he met Toulouse Lautrec, who influenced Laboureur’s emerging aesthetic style, as did the work of Odilon Redon, Bonnard, and perhaps most notably Felix Vallotton, who became a close colleague, and whose woodcut work often bears a close relationship to Laboureur’s. Eau Fraiche demonstrates the close relationship between the two artists, and is among those major achievements which created an aesthetic tradition in woodcutting that has been followed – although rarely as effectively as by these originators - by modernist artists for over a century.

$3500

]]> http://harrisschrank.com/eau-fraiche.htm/feed 0