"Dans les coulisses" - Lithographie originale sur Chine - L'Estampe Moderne

Rare original lithograph, executed by Henri Boutet for L'Estampe Moderne, series number 8 published in December 1897.
One of 50 deluxe proofs printed on China paper with wide margins, artist's signature in the plate, publisher's dry stamp representing a child's profile in lower margin, mounted on a sheet of laid paper with on verso the numbered stamp of the deluxe printing, pale marginal foxing.
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 Epoque. Each delivery of four prints was printed in 2000 copies sold for 3.50F and 100 on Japan paper offered at 10F. Henri Piazza also planned a confidential printing of very deluxe quality: 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 one of the most prestigious papers: China paper. "Despite all its qualities, China paper, too inconsistent, owes its reputation, not to its own beauty, but indeed to its particular affinities with printing ink. Its texture, smooth and soft together, is more apt than any other to receive a beautiful printing. This property makes China paper sought after for printing engravings..." (Anatole France).
French collectors' interest in artistic posters grew at the beginning of the 1890s. Octave Uzanne, to qualify this fever invented the term "affichomanie". The poster, originally popular and plastered in the streets of the capital, then became an art object and its ephemeral support became precious and devoted to conservation.
Piazza decided to remove the poster from its advertising vocation and elevate it to the rank of a work of art in its own right 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.