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.

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.

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”

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.

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.

]]> http://harrisschrank.com/sortie-de-theatre-a-londres.htm/feed 0 http://harrisschrank.com/petite-images-de-la-guerre-sur-le-front-britannique-1916-complete-set-of-9.htm http://harrisschrank.com/petite-images-de-la-guerre-sur-le-front-britannique-1916-complete-set-of-9.htm#comments Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:10:02 +0000 Harris Schrank http://harrisschrank.com/?p=3071 Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Petite Images de la Guerre Sur le Front Britannique, Portfolio of 9 engravings, 1916, with the signature in pencil on the justification sheet, and numbered (95), from the total edition of 120; there were also about 30 proofs of earlier states and 15 in this state not in the edition.  Reference: Laboureur 144-152, fourth state (of 4). In good condition, the cover of the portfolio worn but the prints and inside sheets in very good condition. The portfolio includes a title page which reads in part: “Neuf gravures au burin de J.-E. Laboureur precedees d’une Lettre sur [...]]]> Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Petite Images de la Guerre Sur le Front Britannique, Portfolio of 9 engravings, 1916, with the signature in pencil on the justification sheet, and numbered (95), from the total edition of 120; there were also about 30 proofs of earlier states and 15 in this state not in the edition.  Reference: Laboureur 144-152, fourth state (of 4). In good condition, the cover of the portfolio worn but the prints and inside sheets in very good condition. The portfolio includes a title page which reads in part: “Neuf gravures au burin de J.-E. Laboureur precedees d’une Lettre sur les spectacles de la Guerre, de Roger Allard. A Paris, de ‘imprimerie d’A. Vernant, 6 rue Emile Dubois.” Each print is about 7 x 5 1/2 inches, on a sheet 11 x 8 3/4. Each impression is printed on a double sheet, which, when folded, is 11 x 8 3/4 inches.

Fine impressions, in excellent condition.

For the show The Cubist Print, 1981, Burr Wallen wrote: “The plates represent evolved versions of the artist’s slender, elongated figures with long necks and stylized poses in the matter of Parmigianino. It is possible that Laboureur may have been inspired by Winslow Homer’s Campaign Sketches, a portfolio of lithographs published in Boston in 1863 that take a similarly casual approach to camp life during the Civil War. One cannot fail to be impressed by the consummate precision of his fine engraved lines,possibly executed with the help of a magnifying glass. A rich variety of hatching and cross-hatching grw from the artist’s study of old master engravings…” It seems too that Laboureur was influenced by the  Mannerist old master engravings he studied in the years before the Great War; here he melds Mannerist and Cubist idioms to create his own modernist aesthetic.

We show only four of the set of 9 engravings, but of course pictures of all the prints are available on request.

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.

Detail

]]> http://harrisschrank.com/paysage-aux-buttes-chaumont-1re-planche.htm/feed 0 http://harrisschrank.com/eau-fraiche.htm http://harrisschrank.com/eau-fraiche.htm#comments Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:18:40 +0000 Harris Schrank http://harrisschrank.com/?p=3048 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 [...]]]>

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.

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Chez la Corsetiere, soft ground etching and drypoint, a color etching made with two plates, 1934, signed in pencil lower left, also titled and inscribed “epreuve d’essai (en couleur)” and “tire a 5 epreuves” lower margin by the artist. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 494, first state (of 2). In excellent condition, printed on a cream wove paper with the watermark initials AMV. The full sheet with margins, 8 1/4 x 6, the sheet 11 x 8 3/4 inches, archival matting.

A fine impression of the rare first state, before additional definitional lines to the mirror and other areas were added. Printed in black and sanguine. Only 5 trial proofs of the first state were made, and only 22 impressions printed overall (although a larger edition may have been intended).

In this trial state this print has an experimental impressionistic quality which is quite affecting and effective; in the second state the composition was more straightforward and perhaps a bit less seductive.

Jean-Emile Laboueur (1877-1943), La Repasseuse (The Presser), 1937, engraving and drypoint. Signed and numbered in pencil (29/67) [with the monogram bottom left]. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 527, third state of three. In good condition, on  tan wove paper, with wide margins (remains of prior hinging verso), 9 1/4 x 7, the sheet 13 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches, archival mounting.

A fine impression.

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. 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. Laboureur traveled widely, staying for periods in the US and London, and studying classic art and printmaking in Italy and Germany. Although he had moved back to Paris by 1910, a time when analytical cubism was emerging in the work of Picasso and Braque, he continued working in an abstract, modernist mode, waiting until about 1913 or shortly thereafter to invent a cubist idiom all his own. Cubism remained an important theme for Laboureur, a theme he varied, sometimes using it as a strong design or compositional component, sometimes only as a subtle background element.

In La Repasseuse, Laboureur shares his fascination with the modernist shapes of the shirts and collars dwarfing the girl pressing them in the background. His work is perhaps looser than usual, and, at this mature stage of his career, brimming with confidence.