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

Rare original color lithograph, executed by Charles Léandre for L'Estampe Moderne, series number 4 published in August 1897.
One of the 50 deluxe proofs printed on Japan paper with wide margins, artist's signature and date in the plate, publisher's dry stamp representing a child's profile in the lower margin, numbered stamp from the deluxe edition on verso; print preceded by a tissue guard bearing the artist's name, title and introductory text; and another blank tissue guard.
Magnificent French monthly publication issued between May 1897 and April 1899, L'Estampe moderne consists of original chromolithographs which, unlike other journals such as Les Maîtres de l'Affiche and as stipulated on the tissue guards, were created specially by each artist for the journal. 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 produced in 2,000 copies sold for 3.50F and 100 on Japan paper offered at 10F. Henri Piazza also planned a confidential deluxe printing: 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 in colors on the most prestigious of papers: Japan. Thick, silky, satiny and pearlescent, it helps make each page a work in its own right. Its ink-absorbing quality and affinity with colors also make it the ideal support for these very beautiful lithographs.
French collectors' interest in artistic posters increased in the early 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 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 in the style of Les Maîtres de l'Affiche.