"Bal de barrière" - Lithographie originale sur Chine - L'Estampe Moderne

Rare original lithograph, executed by Théophile Alexandre Steinlen for L'Estampe Moderne, series number 14 published in June 1898.
One of 50 deluxe proofs printed on China paper with wide margins, artist's signature and date in the plate, publisher's dry stamp depicting a child's profile in the lower margin, mounted on a sheet of laid paper with the numbered stamp of the deluxe printing on the verso, some foxing.
Lithograph inspired by an excerpt from Germinie Lacerteux by the Goncourts.
Magnificent French monthly publication edited between May 1897 and April 1899, L'Estampe moderne consists of unpublished chromolithographs which, unlike other magazines such as Les Maîtres de l'Affiche and as stipulated on the tissue guards, were created specially by each artist for the magazine. Thus 100 prints appear in total, covering the major artistic movements of the late nineteenth century: Symbolism, Art Nouveau, Pre-Raphaelites, Orientalists and Belle Epoque. Each delivery of four prints is published in 2000 copies sold for 3.50F and 100 on Japan paper offered at 10F. Henri Piazza also provides a confidential printing of very high luxury: 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 paper. "Despite all its qualities, China paper, too inconsistent, owes its reputation, not to its own beauty, but indeed to its particular affinities with printing ink. Its texture, smooth and soft together, is more apt than any other to receive a fine printing. This property makes China paper sought after for printing engravings..." (Anatole France).
The interest of French collectors in artistic posters amplifies at the beginning of the 1890s. Octave Uzanne, to qualify this fever, invents the term "affichomanie". The poster, originally popular and posted in the streets of the capital, then becomes an art object and its ephemeral support becomes precious and devoted to conservation.
Piazza decides to remove the poster from its advertising vocation and to elevate it to the rank of a complete work of art on the same level as the luxury illustrated book. He thus composes 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.