Minne Playing with a Cat (Minne Jouant avec un Chat)
Jacques Villon (1875-1963) etching, aquatint, and drypoint, Minne Playing with a Cat (Minne Jouant avec un Chat),1907, signed in pencil and numbered (12/30)(Ginestet and Pouillon 192).
A very good impression, with bright contrasts and strong burr from the drypoint, on laid Japan with margins. Ex. coll: Estate of June W. Schuster; Mrs David Steinmetz III.
In good condition, with margins (pale light and mat stain in margins, minor soiling at the bottom left margin corner), 9 3/8 x 6 5/8 (the sheet 13 x 9) inches.
This is from the Minne series, a group of prints made by Villon in 1907, portraying the young daughter of a friend in various poses. Minne’s real name was Renee, and she achieved a sort of fame four years later when Villon made his landmark cubist prints of her. In this modernist/expressionist portrait Villon explores the enigmatic character of a young girl, a subject which held much fascination for him at this early stage in his career.