?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 3/4 inches, 59x42 1/2 cm. [André Marty, Paris.] Condition B+: foxing in margins; hand-signed and numbered 35 by the artist in pencil, with the publisher's blind stamp in lower left corner. 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, 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. 23x16 inches, 59x42 cm. [André Marty, Paris.]](https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/full//644\747644.jpg)
