"Liseuses" - Lithographie originale sur Chine - L'Estampe Moderne

Rare original lithograph, executed by Louis Welden Hawkins for L'Estampe Moderne, series number 22 published in February 1899.
One of 50 deluxe proofs printed on China paper with wide margins, artist's signature in the plate, publisher's blind stamp depicting a child's profile in the lower margin, mounted on a sheet of laid paper with the numbered luxury edition stamp on the reverse, some foxing.
Lithograph inspired by an excerpt from Aux champs by Paul Delaroche.
Magnificent French monthly publication edited between May 1897 and April 1899, L'Estampe moderne consists of unpublished chromolithographs which, unlike other magazines such as Les Maîtres de l'Affiche and as stipulated on the tissue guards, were created specially by each artist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 for 3.50F and 100 on Japan paper offered at 10F. Henri Piazza also planned a confidential printing of very grand luxury: 50 copies on Japan paper with wide margins and 50 in black on China paper at the considerable price of 30F.
This print of beautiful 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 impression. This property makes China paper sought after for printing engravings..." (Anatole France).
French collectors' interest in artistic posters intensified in the early 1890s. Octave Uzanne, to describe this fever, invented the term "affichomanie." The poster, originally popular and plastered 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 luxury 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.