Negres Americains a Saint-Nazaire
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Negres Americains a Saint-Nazaire, 1917-1920, engraving on cream wove paper, signed in pencil lower left, titled lower left margin edge, and numbered (4/35) and inscribed imp lower right [monogram in the plate], 6.25 x 5.06, the sheet 9.75 x 7.5 inches. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur, Godefry 180. Second state (of 2). In very good condition, with margins and archival mounting.
A fine impression of this important and rare cubist-influenced engraving. One of the most popular and engaging of Laboureur’s early images of World War I, Negres Americains a Saint-Nazaire has been exhibited at at least 18 of the larger Laboureur shows and retrospectives.
Although this print was numbered as if the edition was 35, only 28 impressions were printed in total, 8 in the first state (before the monogram in the plate), and 20 in the second.
This is a splendid example of the effectiveness of Laboureur’s engraving technique, with its pointed and regularized incisions, in a cubist/modernist composition. This impression was printed (by Laboureur himself) with a light veil of platetone which lend an atmospheric quality to the scene.