"La phalène des îles de la mer" - 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 Chine with wide margins, artist's signature and date in the plate, dry stamp of the publisher depicting a child's profile in lower margin, mounted on a sheet of laid paper with on verso the numbered stamp of the deluxe issue, pale marginal foxing.
Magnificent French monthly publication issued between May 1897 and April 1899, L'Estampe moderne consists of original chromolithographs which, unlike other periodicals such as Les Maîtres de l'Affiche and as stipulated on the tissue guards, were created specially by each artist for the periodical. Thus 100 prints appeared in total, covering the major artistic currents of the late 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 deluxe issue: 50 copies on Japan with wide margins and 50 in black on Chine at the considerable price of 30F.
This print of handsome format is superbly printed on one of the most prestigious papers: Chine. "Despite all its qualities, China paper, too insubstantial, owes its reputation, not to its own beauty, but indeed to its particular affinities with printing ink. Its texture, smooth and soft at once, 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 qualify this fever, invented the term "postomania." The poster, originally popular and posted in 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 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 symbolist style.