?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
EUGENE GRASSET (1841-1917) [LA VITRIOLEUSE.] 1893. 19x133/4 inches. Condition A. Paper. Framed. Hand signed and numbered. This original lithograph is from an edition of 100 that was printed for L'Estampe Originale by Andre 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. However, the other image 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, 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.
![EUGENE GRASSET (1841-1917) [LA VITRIOLEUSE.] 1893. 19x13 inches.](https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/full//181\565181.jpg)
