"Tristesse sur la mer" - Lithographie originale sur Japon - L'Estampe Moderne

Rare original lithograph in colors, executed by Raoul André Ulmann for L'Estampe Moderne, series number 19 published in November 1898.
One of 50 deluxe proofs printed on Japan paper with wide margins, artist's monogram in the plate, publisher's dry stamp representing a child's profile in lower margin, numbered stamp of the luxury edition on verso; lithograph preceded by a tissue guard with legend of the artist's name, title, and an extract from a work.
Lithograph inspired by an extract from the travel narrative in Brittany, Par les Champs et par les Grèves, by Gustave Flaubert, reproduced on the tissue guard of the print.
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 specially by each artist for the magazine. Thus 100 prints appeared in total, covering the major artistic movements of the late nineteenth century: Symbolism, Art Nouveau, Pre-Raphaelites, Orientalists and Belle Époque. Each issue of four prints is printed in 2000 copies sold for 3.50F and 100 on Japan paper offered at 10F. Henri Piazza also planned a confidential printing of very grand 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 the most prestigious of papers: Japan paper. Thick, silky, satined and pearlescent, it contributes to making each page a work in its own right. Its quality of ink absorption and its affinity with colors also make it the ideal support for these very beautiful lithographs.
The interest of French collectors in artistic posters intensified at the beginning of the 1890s. Octave Uzanne, to qualify 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 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 complete work of art on the same level as the luxury 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 a twilight light entirely symbolist.