Dec 17, 2008 - Sale 2167

Sale 2167 - Lot 82

Price Realized: $ 5,280
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 5,000 - $ 7,500
HENRI-GABRIEL IBELS (1867-1936) IRÈNE HENRY / TOUS LES SOIRS. 1894.
48 1/2x33 1/2 inches, 123x85 cm. G. Bataille, Paris.
Condition B+: repaired tears, creases and restoration in margins and image; vertical and horizontal folds.
Ibels was one of the most prominent young artists in Paris in the 1890s. He studied at the Academie Julian with Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard and became one of the founding members of the Nabis, participating in all of their exhibitions. In 1891, his works were exhibited side-by-side with Toulouse-Lautrec's at the Salon des Independants, and the two became close friends. Like Toulouse-Lautrec he loved the café-concerts and designed most of his posters for, or featuring, performers. In 1893, he collaborated with Toulouse-Lautrec on an album of lithographs entitled Le Café-Concert. Rather than become a painter, Ibels dedicated his art to the printed page, working for magazines, designing sheet music covers and theatrical programs. Within the Nabis he was known as "The Nabis Journalist," because of his work for many of Paris' progressive journals and the founding of the short-lived periodical L'Escaramouche. For Irène Henry, an artist who is completely forgotten today, Ibels designed his best "Nabis style" poster. He uses blank paper to delineate the stage on which the singer appears in profile. He fills the rest of the image with a pure, Nabis rendering in green, blue and violet of the public and the gardens of the Champs Elysée where the concert was held. DFP -II 473, Reims 748, Café-Concert 77.