?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
EUGÈNE GRASSET (1845-1917)
[LA VITRIOLEUSE.] 1894.
23x17 inches, 58 1/2x43 cm. André Marty, Paris. Condition A-: darkening in margins; slight bleaching in upper right corner; hand-signed and numbered 29 by the artist in pencil; publisher's blind stamp in lower left corner. Paper.
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, along with La Morphinomane; however, the other image wasn't printed until 1897, 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. Both images share a morbid and bizarre theme that, while seemingly ill-suited to fine Art Nouveau prints, are pure Art Nouveau masterpieces. Arwas p. 64-65, Grasset p. 127.
![EUGÈNE GRASSET (1845-1917). [LA VITRIOLEUSE.] 1894. 23x17 inches, 58½x43 cm. André Marty, Paris.](https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/full//296\803296.jpg)
