"La blanchisseuse" - Lithographie originale sur Japon - L'Estampe Moderne

Rare original lithograph printed in the manner of red chalk, executed by Camille Bellanger for L'Estampe Moderne, series number 9 published in January 1898.
One of 50 deluxe proofs printed on Japan paper with wide margins, artist's signature and date in the plate, publisher's embossed stamp showing a child's profile in the lower margin, numbered stamp of the deluxe edition on verso; print preceded by a tissue guard inscribed with the artist's name, title and presentation of the artist, crease mark; blank tissue guard.
Magnificent French monthly publication issued between May 1897 and April 1899, L'Estampe moderne consists of unpublished chromolithographs which, unlike other magazines such as Les Maîtres de l'Affiche and as stipulated on the tissue guards, were created specially by each artist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 deluxe edition: 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, satiny and pearlescent, it contributes to making each page a work of art 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.
French collectors' interest in artistic posters increased at the beginning of the 1890s. Octave Uzanne, to describe this fever, invented the term "poster mania". The poster, originally popular and pasted on the streets of the capital, then became an art object and its ephemeral medium became precious and destined for preservation.
Piazza decided to remove the poster from its advertising purpose and elevate it to the rank of a complete work of art on the same level 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.