Couverture de L'Estampe Moderne n°4 août 1897

Original black and white print with wide margins serving as cover for the famous monthly publication of L'Estampe Moderne. Entirely printed in black, our print is the cover of the rare deluxe volume compilation with wide margins of the first year of publication. Artist's signature in the plate and deluxe edition number added in pencil.
Magnificent French monthly publication issued 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 Époque. Each issue of four prints was published in 2000 copies sold for 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.
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 plastered in the streets of the capital, then became an art object and its ephemeral medium became precious and destined for conservation.
Piazza decided to remove the poster from its advertising vocation 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.
The publisher also included in his project a Czech artist newly arrived in Paris, Alfons Mucha « who has recently revealed himself in France and who has immediately conquered such a great place in public favor. As in his posters, which everyone knows and seeks, he shows us here the varied resources of his multiple and sure talent as draftsman, decorator and colorist. » [« qui s'est révélé depuis peu en France et qui a conquis d'emblée une si grande place dans la faveur du public. Comme dans ses affiches, que tout le monde connaît et recherche, il nous montre ici les ressources variées de son talent multiple et sûr de dessinateur, de décorateur et de coloriste. »] (caption printed on the tissue guard of Salomé). It is moreover to him that the first premium of the magazine was entrusted, offered « to all subscribers of the twelve annual issues of L'Estampe moderne » [« à tous les souscripteurs des douze livraisons annuelles de L'Estampe moderne »] as well as the famous cover illustration.
Very handsome copy.