Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) - Salon des Cent...

HENRI DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC (Albi, 1864 – Saint-André-du-Bois, 1901) La Passagère du 54 – Promenade en Yacht Salon des Cent – Exposition Internationale d’Affiches 1895–1896 Original color lithograph on beige vélin paper. Dimensions: approximately 61 × 41 cm. Printer: Imprimerie Bourgerie & Cie., Paris. Toulouse-Lautrec monogram incorporated into the composition. Catalogue references: Delteil 366; Adhémar 188; Adriani 137; Wittrock P20. The piece you show matches, in composition, dimensions, texts, and printer’s mark “IMP. BOURGERIE & Cie PARIS,” the third and final state of this famous lithograph by Toulouse-Lautrec: precisely the state converted into a poster for the Exposition Internationale d’Affiches of the Salon des Cent, at 31 rue Bonaparte in Paris. The Bibliothèque nationale de France catalogs this third state as a poster and also specifies its process: color lithography executed by painting, pencil, and spatter (crachis). Presentation for auction catalog Magnificent and rare original lithographic poster by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, created at the apex of his graphic production and intended for the mythical Salon des Cent of Paris, one of the main showcases of the new graphic art of the Belle Époque. The composition, known as La Passagère du 54 or Promenade en Yacht, comes from an episode in the artist’s life. During a sea voyage in 1895 with his friend Maurice Guibert, Toulouse-Lautrec became fascinated by an elegant passenger whose identity he did not know and who occupied Cabin No. 54. He depicted her resting in a deck chair, absorbed before the sea. Princeton preserves a copy and dates the work to 1895–96, directly linking it to that journey. Subsequently, this image was adapted to announce an International Poster Exhibition of the Salon des Cent. In the third state, the large handwritten inscriptions designed by Lautrec himself — Salon des Cent and Exposition Internationale d’Affiches — were added, turning the print into a genuine advertising poster. The British Museum confirms that it was precisely the third state used as the poster for the exhibition. The importance of these original posters goes far beyond their advertising function. Toulouse-Lautrec was one of the artists responsible for elevating the late 19th-century street poster to the status of a work of art. Against traditional advertising, he introduced radically simplified compositions, large flat areas of color, photographic- and Japanese-inspired framing, typography integrated into the composition itself, and an extraordinary economy of lines. His posters are today one of the fundamental chapters in the birth of modern graphic design. Moreover, unlike a later reproduction, we are talking about a work conceived from the outset to be printed in color lithography during the artist’s lifetime. Copies of this composition are currently held in major institutional collections such as the Bibliothèque nationale de France, LACMA, Albertina, British Museum, National Gallery of Art, and Princeton University Art Museum. LACMA, for example, houses a copy of La Passagère du 54 measuring approximately 59 × 40 cm. The technique: why it is special This is not a modern print from a photographic image. It is an original color lithograph. Lautrec drew directly on the lithographic stones using greasy pencil and brush; for the granular effects he used the so-called crachis, a spray technique that produces the characteristic speckling especially visible in the sky and certain surfaces of the poster. The BnF specifically describes this work as made with brush, pencil, and crachis. Each color required its own preparation and printing, with successive passes perfectly registered. Hence, when examining an original from the period, the colors do not have the uniformity of a digital reproduction: there are small variations, overlays, and textures that are part of the process. In your copy, the blue-green sea and letters, the yellows of the chair and hair, the orange touches of the figure, and, above all, the crachis of the background are especially interesting. The printer Bourgerie & Cie., Paris is also present, coinciding with the copies cataloged institutionally. The Albertina catalogues this work as a color lithograph printed by Bourgerie & Cie. with dimensions of 60.8 × 40.6 cm, remarkably close to your copy’s approximately 61 × 41 cm. #exceptionalart26

Stima:€14,000

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