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

Rare original lithograph in the manner of red chalk, executed by Paul-César Helleu for L'Estampe Moderne, series number 20 published in December 1898.
One of 50 deluxe proofs printed on Japan paper with wide margins, laid paper laid down on Japan paper, artist's signature in the plate, publisher's dry stamp representing a child's profile in the lower margin, numbered luxury edition stamp on the verso; engraving preceded by a tissue guard inscribed with the artist's name, title, and an extract from a work.
Lithograph inspired by an extract from Nos parisiennes by Alfred Labarre, reproduced on the print's tissue guard.
Magnificent French monthly publication edited between May 1897 and April 1899, L'Estampe moderne consists of unpublished chromolithographs which, unlike other magazines such as Les Maîtres de l'Affiche and as stipulated on the tissue guards, were created specially by each artist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 end of the 19th century: Symbolism, Art Nouveau, Pre-Raphaelites, Orientalists and Belle Époque. Each delivery of four prints was issued 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 handsome format is superbly printed on the most prestigious of papers: Japan paper. Thick, silky, satiny 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.
French collectors' interest in artistic posters grew at the beginning of the 1890s. Octave Uzanne, to qualify this fever, invented the term "affichomania." The poster, originally popular and plastered in the streets of the capital, then became an art object and its ephemeral medium became precious and devoted to preservation.
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 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.