"Belle d'antan" - Lithographie originale sur Chine - L'Estampe Moderne

Rare original lithograph, executed by Jacques Wely for L'Estampe Moderne, series number 8 published in December 1897.
One of 50 deluxe proofs printed on China paper with wide margins, laid paper mounted on China, artist's signature in the plate, publisher's blind stamp representing a child's profile in lower margin, mounted on a sheet of vellum paper with numbered stamp of the deluxe edition on verso, 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 issue 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 edition: 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. "Despite all its qualities, China paper, too insubstantial, 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 impression. This property makes China paper sought after for printing engravings..." ["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..."] (Anatole France).
The interest of French collectors in artistic posters grew in the early 1890s. Octave Uzanne, to describe this fever, invented the term "affichomanie." The poster, originally popular and posted 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 purpose and elevate it to the rank of a work of art in its own right, on the same level as the illustrated luxury 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.