"Impéria" - Lithographie originale sur Japon - L'Estampe Moderne

Rare original color lithograph, executed by Alfred Pierre Agache for L'Estampe Moderne, series number 24 published in April 1899.
One of 50 deluxe proofs printed on Japan paper with wide margins, publisher's dry stamp depicting a child's profile in lower margin, numbered stamp of the deluxe issue on verso.
A magnificent French monthly publication edited between May 1897 and April 1899, L'Estampe moderne consists of original chromolithographs which, unlike other magazines such as Les Maîtres de l'Affiche and as stipulated on the tissue guards, were created specifically by each artist for the magazine. Thus 100 prints appeared in total, covering the major artistic movements of the late 19th century: Symbolism, Art Nouveau, Pre-Raphaelites, Orientalists and Belle Époque. Each issue of four prints was printed in 2000 copies sold at 3.50F and 100 on Japan paper offered at 10F. Henri Piazza also planned a confidential very deluxe printing: 50 copies on Japan paper with wide margins and 50 in black on China paper at the considerable price of 30F.
This print of handsome format is superbly printed on the most prestigious of papers: Japan. Thick, silky, satin and pearlescent, it contributes to making each page a work in its own right. Its quality of ink absorption and its affinity with colors also make it the ideal support for these very beautiful lithographs.
The interest of French collectors in artistic posters intensified at the beginning of the 1890s. Octave Uzanne, to describe this fever, invented the term "affichomanie". The poster, originally popular and posted in the streets of the capital, then became an art object and its ephemeral support became precious and destined for preservation.
Piazza decided to remove the poster from its advertising vocation and elevate it to the rank of a complete work of art in the same way as the deluxe illustrated book. He thus composed a prestigious collection of entirely original works, by the most prominent European artists of the moment: Georges de Feure, Eugène Grasset, Henri Detouche, Emile Berchmans, Louis Rhead, Gaston de Latenay, Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer, Gustave-Max Stevens, Charles Doudelet, Hans Christiansen, Henri Fantin-Latour, Steinlen, Ibels, Engels, Willette, Henri Meunier, Evenepoël, Bellery-Desfontaines, Charles Léandre, etc.
Handsome copy.