?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
HENRI DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC (1864-1901) NIB. 1894. 135/8x195/8 inches. [Ancourt, Paris.] Condition A: vertical and horizontal folds. Paper. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was quite a character, a living caricature who embodied the spirit of Montmartre and bohemian life. He is considered a master painter and print maker by art historians and enjoys a status that no other graphic designer has achieved. His skill and reputation are well deserved and based on numerous factors: His talent as a draughtsman, his imagination, inventiveness and his mastery of lithography are all above comparison. Also, he was already an established, well regarded artist when he entered the poster field, one of the first "serious" artists to try their hand at this new art form of commercial lithography. His importance as an artist lent much needed gravitas to the poster field, and his subsequent unbridled success in the field helped to establish the poster as a serious art form. For these reasons he is the most voraciously collected graphic designer, and consequently his works fetch the highest prices. "Towards the end of 1894 Lautrec began preliminary work on a project that had long been close to his heart. Entitled "Nib" - a slang expression, meaning "nothing special" - this four-page supplement with original prints and texts by celebrated artists and writers was to be published under Lautrec's direction, in co-production with La Revue Blanche, on a monthly basis" (Adriani p. 146). Although the small project was exquisite, designed by Lautrec, Bonnard and Valloton, and despite the fact that it included a whole page of advertisements, it still wasn't viable, and was discontinued after three issues. This first issue, which by co-edited with Tristan Bernard and published with No. 39 of La Revue Blanche on 1 January 1895, contained three lithographs. "The title page is an amusing and ironic depiction of an amateur photographer, in the person of the actor Lenoble, who is proudly taking the world home with him in his little box. A portrait of the Polish singer Anna Held, followed on the third page, opposite a political report by Tristan Bernard and a remark by Lautrec, Pieds dans le Plat (Put his foot in it), or a monogram in the shape of an elephant. Half of the fourth page is filled with an image of the circus act by the clowns Georges Footit and Chocolat advertising Potin Chocolate" (ibid). This hilarious, rare gem was only published in an edition of about 2000. Delteil 99 I, II, Wittrock 86, Adhemar 106, Adriani 102
![HENRI DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC (1864-1901) NIB. 1894. 13x19 inches. [Ancourt, Paris.]](https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/full//604\566604.jpg)
