?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
EUGÈNE GRASSET (1845-1917) [LA VITRIOLEUSE.] 1894. 23 1/4x16 1/4 inches, 59x41 1/4 cm. [André Marty, Paris.] Condition B+: water staining and minor foxing in margins and image; time-staining in margins; minor abrasions at edges; tape on verso along right edge; hand-signed and numbered 76 in pencil. Paper. Matted and framed. This original lithograph is from an edition of 100 that was printed for L'Estampe Originale by André Marty. It "is an extraordinary [lithograph]. Hand-colored by the pochoir stencil process in 5 colors . . . Vitrioleuse is the most accomplished example of Japonisme in Grasset's work. Directly inspired by the actor woodblock prints of Toyokoni and more particularly Sharaku" (Arwas p. 64-65). Thematically, it is often considered one of a pair of images, the other being La Morphinomane, though it wasn't printed until 1897, when it was produced for the Album Vollard. Here, a woman with a cup of poison is so angry she is ready to throw it into someone's face; her countenance - sickly and frightening - is as disturbingly colorful as the poison in her bowl. In the other poster, a drug addict is injecting herself. Both images share a morbid and bizarre theme that seems ill-suited to a fine Art Nouveau print, yet, terrifying images aside, it is a pure Art Nouveau masterpiece, composed of sophisticated flat tones and bold outlining. Arwas p. 64-65, Murray Robertson p. 127.
![EUGÈNE GRASSET (1845-1917). [LA VITRIOLEUSE.] 1894. 23x16 inches, 59x41 cm. [André Marty, Paris.]](https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/full//692\725692.jpg)
