HARRIS SCHRANK FINE PRINTS

Jacques Villon,  L’Oiseau (The Bird), drypoint and etching, c. 1921, signed in pencil lower right and inscribed “tire a 50″ lower left margin [also signed and dated in the plate]. Reference: Ginestet and Pouillon E293, only state. From the first edition of 50 (additional impressions were pulled for the book Eloge de Jacques Villon by Jacques Lassaigne in 1955). In very good condition, tiny spot on matrix upper center, on laid paper with wide margins with deckle edges,  4 x 6 5/8, the sheet 6 1/2 x 9 5/8 inches, archival mounting (hinged between acid free boards, window mat and mylar cover).

A fine rich impression.

This is one of Villon’s most successful small cubist prints in which he varies the patterns and textures of each plane. Villon succeeds largely because of his awareness that creating the successful cubist print does not call for mechanical adherence to structure or formula; he notes that although in transforming the object into a cubist artwork there is no room for chance, one must allow a place for poetry and mystery in the cubist work. This may help explain his apparent use of phosphorous (or some grain) to create tiny patterns of dots here and there, as well as his use of irregular spacing and shading in what at first glance would appear to be highly regularized linear patterns.

He wrote: “Ce qui m’a seduit dans le Cubisme c’est la recherche de creation, la discipline qui conduit au tableau volontaire, ordonnance, ou il n’y a plus place pour le hasard. L’oeuvre d’art devient ‘chose en soi’, s’appuyant sur le sujet, mais le transformation pour en faire une creation nouvelle qui dans son organisation voulue, contienne un peu de la poesie, du mystere de la vie.” So, cubism shouldn’t be just  mechanical adherence to a discipline, it should have some poetry, some mystery.

Jacques Villon (1875-1963),  La Parisienne (tournee a gauche, petite planche), 1904, etching and aquatint in color (black, brown, red), signed  and dated (’04) in pencil. Reference: Ginestet and Pouillon E093, fifth state (of five). In very good condition, with margins, 9 1/2 x 6 1/2, the sheet 13 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches.

A fine delicately printed impression.

Provenance: Louis Carre (1897-1977), Villon’s dealer in both New York and Paris, who organized the first comprehensive exhibit of Villon’s graphic work, in Paris in 1954, and who kept many of the finest working proofs of Villon’s early prints, such as this one, which passed through his estate. The Carre stock number 11320 is written verso.

At this stage in his career Villon was experimenting with colored etching, in a Belle Epoque/Modernist mode; this is much before his later cubist efforts.

Marcel Duchamp (Villon’s brother) has stated that Yvonne Duchamp was the model for this print, as shown by a note on the Museum of Modern Art impression of the print. Our impression is comparable to the MOMA impression – in both the chair is printed in orange (in the NY Public Library impression it’s salmon).

Jacques Villon (1875-1963), Monsieur D. Lisant (Portrait of the Artist’s Father, Reading), drypoint, 1913, signed in pencil lower right and inscribed “ep. d’artiste” lower left margins [initaled in the plate lower left JV]. Ginestet and Poullion E284. An artist’s proof; the edition size was 32. On Rives laid paper, with the watermark Eug. Delatre. In excellent condition, the full sheet with deckle edges, 19 1/2 x 14 3/8, the sheet 21 5/8 x 14 7/8 inches.

A fine proof impression, with rich burr. (the edition was 32).

The rich burr in this impression is blacker and more velvety than the numbered impressions from the edition we have seen; this is an earlier impression. The burr is comparable to the trial proof impression at the Philadelphia Museum of Art; that impression is, however, less cleanly wiped.

Monsieur D. Lisant represents a culmination of Villon’s efforts in cubist portraiture, and it was the last of the great cubist prints of 1913.  The composition is abstract, but not entirely so (e.g., the details of the face are clearly legible, the hands and book at the lower right somewhat less so).  The brilliant crystalline structure of converging planes gives the composition a striking sense of movement.

Villon began his career as a printmaker, and this perhaps explains his lifelong focus on printmaking. Monsieur D. Lisant demonstrates how printmaking – especially drypoint – was an ideal medium for Villon’s cubist prints. Planes, angles, regularized shading, screening, all work spendidly. Even a century after the invention of cubism Monsieur D. Lisant continues to strike the viewer as a bit shocking, and invites one to look long and hard at what the future might bring.