"Pêcheurs à la ligne" - Lithographie originale sur Chine - L'Estampe Moderne

Rare original lithograph, executed by Charles Huard for L'Estampe Moderne, series number 17 published in September 1898.
One of the 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 the numbered deluxe edition stamp on the reverse, pale marginal foxing.
Lithograph inspired by a poem from the collection La Chanson des Gueux by Jean Richepin.
Magnificent French monthly publication edited between May 1897 and April 1899, L'Estampe moderne consists of original chromolithographies 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 installment 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 printing: 50 copies on Japan 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. "Malgré toutes ses qualités, le papier de Chine, trop inconsistant, doit sa réputation, non pas à sa propre beauté, mais bien à ses affinités particulières avec l'encre d'impression. Son tissu, lisse et mou tout ensemble, est plus apte qu'aucun autre à recevoir un beau tirage. Cette propriété fait rechercher le papier de Chine pour le tirage des gravures..." ["Despite all its qualities, China paper, too inconsistent, owes its reputation, not to its own beauty, but rather 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 intensified at the beginning of the 1890s. Octave Uzanne, to describe this fever, invented the term "affichomanie." The poster, originally popular and displayed 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 vocation and elevate it to the rank of a work of art in its own right, on par with 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.