Exposition des Oevres de Charlet et de Lithographies Modernes
| Reference: | S1673 |
| Author | Adolphe Léon Willette |
| Year: | 1900 |
| Measures: | 395 x 290 mm |
€175.00
| Reference: | S1673 |
| Author | Adolphe Léon Willette |
| Year: | 1900 |
| Measures: | 395 x 290 mm |
€175.00
Description
Lithograph printed in color on tissue paper, in very good condition. Plate 194, from the fifth annual volume (1900) of Les Maîtres de l'affiche.
Composition created for the exhibition of the Charlet works, by Adolphe Léon Willette.
Proof with the embossed stamp of Les Maîtres de l'affiche in the lower right corner (Lugt: L.1777c), signed in the plate, printed at Chaix (Ateliers Chéret) rue Bergère in Paris.
Les Maîtres de l'affiche is a monthly French publication printed in France between December 1895 and November 1900. The idea to create the magazine is of Jules Chéret, at the time artistic director of Chaix, a printing house located in Paris at 20 rue Bergère. Each issue includes four posters reproduced using the technique of chromolithography. Each copy had an embossed stamp of authentication. The sale price was 2.50 francs per issue, while a subscription cost 27 francs. There was also a luxury edition on Japan printed in 100 copies and sold for 80 francs for 12 issues.
In January 1897, a first volume was put on sale that included all the affiches published the previous year; the publication had a preface signed by Roger Marx and had a format created by Jean Engel based on a project by Paul Berthon. Until January 1901, the date of the magazine's closure, a total of five volumes were produced, with 97 artists involved.
The 256 color plates that make up the suite represent a wide-ranging selection of outstanding original posters from the turn of the twentieth century when this popular art form first reached its peak.
Early printed posters were very text-heavy, with relatively few illustrations. After all, they were created to advertise products, and adding an illustration to an advertisement in the mid-1800s was not commonplace. However, during the second half of the nineteenth century, when all types of commercial products were aesthetically upgraded, serious artists began to see the new possibilities in the poster medium. By linking their imagery to modern commerce, the thinking was that each would be enhanced by the value of the other. This was especially true for Jules Cheret (1836-1932) whose unique combination of artistic, technical, and entrepreneurial talents paved the way for an actual poster industry. Cheret opened his own print shop in Paris in 1866 – Imprimerie Chaix – and his work then began to inspire numerous emulators throughout Europe and America.
By the 1890s the streets of every great city were enlivened by large, colorful posters. The posters had not only caught the fancy of the public, but its best examples were already being regarded as true works of art (specifically, as fine prints) to be exhibited, reviewed in journals, and collected and reproduced in a more manageable form. In the last five years of the century, the ebullient spirit of the “Belle Epoque,” gave birth to a new artistic movement. It was during those years that Imprimerie Chaix was to play a significant part in codifying, hallowing, and perpetuating Cheret’s vision through printmaking.
Adolphe Léon Willette (Châlons-sur-Marne, 31 luglio 1857 – Parigi, 4 febbraio 1926)
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Adolphe Léon Willette (30 July 1857, Châlons-sur-Marne – 4 February 1926, Paris) was a French painter, illustrator, caricaturist, and lithographer, as well as an architect of the famous Moulin Rouge cabaret. Willette ran as an "anti-semitic" candidate in the 9th arrondissement of Paris for the September 1889 legislative elections. Willette studied for four years at the École des Beaux-Arts under Alexandre Cabanel. His graphical work ranged from dainty triviality or political satire: he made Pierrot an imaginary hero of France, and established Mimi Pinson as frail, lovable, and essentially good-hearted. He could also be bitter and fierce, a partisan of political ideas. The guillotine and the figure of Death appear in his caricatures. At the time of the Dreyfus affair he was an anti-dreyfusard; with Jean-Louis Forain, he moved to the political right. The artist was a prolific contributor to the French illustrated press under the pseudonyms "Cémoi", "Pierrot", "Louison", "Bébé", and "Nox", but more often under his own name. He illustrated Melandri's Les Pierrots and Les Giboulles d'avril, Le Courrier français, and published his own Pauvre Pierrot and other works, in which he tells his stories in scenes in the manner of Busch. He decorated several "brasseries artistiques" with wall-paintings, stained glass, and so on notably Le Chat noir and La Palette d'or, and he painted the ceiling for La Cigale music hall. Willette contributed to the Salon des Cent and six of his posters were published in Les Maîtres de l'Affiche. A collection of his works was exhibited in 1888. His V'almy is in the Luxembourg, Paris. Willette's characteristically fantastic Parce Domine was commissioned by Rodolphe Salis for Le Chat Noir in Montmartre. It was shown in the Franco-British Exhibition in 1908.
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Adolphe Léon Willette (Châlons-sur-Marne, 31 luglio 1857 – Parigi, 4 febbraio 1926)
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Adolphe Léon Willette (30 July 1857, Châlons-sur-Marne – 4 February 1926, Paris) was a French painter, illustrator, caricaturist, and lithographer, as well as an architect of the famous Moulin Rouge cabaret. Willette ran as an "anti-semitic" candidate in the 9th arrondissement of Paris for the September 1889 legislative elections. Willette studied for four years at the École des Beaux-Arts under Alexandre Cabanel. His graphical work ranged from dainty triviality or political satire: he made Pierrot an imaginary hero of France, and established Mimi Pinson as frail, lovable, and essentially good-hearted. He could also be bitter and fierce, a partisan of political ideas. The guillotine and the figure of Death appear in his caricatures. At the time of the Dreyfus affair he was an anti-dreyfusard; with Jean-Louis Forain, he moved to the political right. The artist was a prolific contributor to the French illustrated press under the pseudonyms "Cémoi", "Pierrot", "Louison", "Bébé", and "Nox", but more often under his own name. He illustrated Melandri's Les Pierrots and Les Giboulles d'avril, Le Courrier français, and published his own Pauvre Pierrot and other works, in which he tells his stories in scenes in the manner of Busch. He decorated several "brasseries artistiques" with wall-paintings, stained glass, and so on notably Le Chat noir and La Palette d'or, and he painted the ceiling for La Cigale music hall. Willette contributed to the Salon des Cent and six of his posters were published in Les Maîtres de l'Affiche. A collection of his works was exhibited in 1888. His V'almy is in the Luxembourg, Paris. Willette's characteristically fantastic Parce Domine was commissioned by Rodolphe Salis for Le Chat Noir in Montmartre. It was shown in the Franco-British Exhibition in 1908.
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