Le Balcon sur la Mer
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Le Balcon sur la Mer, engraving, 1923, signed in pencil lower right and numbered (49/57) [also initialed in the plate lower right]. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 274, third state (of 3), from the total printing in all states of about 75. In very good condition, the full sheet, 77 7/8 x 8 1/4, the sheet 18 7/8 x 12 inches.
Provenance: Henri M. Petiet (cf. Lugt 2021a, with his stamp verso)
A fine impression of this iconic Laboureur print, printed in black on a greenish laid paper, with unidentified initials watermark.
This composition is said to depict the wife of the artist, at the balcony of their house at Croisic. But although Laboureur here depicts his wife looking out the window of their house, he has also adopted a motif made famous earlier by Picasso (e.g., Nature Morte Devant une Fenetre, 1919), and earlier by Matisse in countless compositions of wrought-iron balconies looking out through a window on the sea, with and without women standing in front of them. Laboureur’s composition was used, in reproduction, on postcards advertising exhibits in Boston and Paris, and the print has been shown in dozens of exhibitions in France, London, and the U.S.