Lithograph printed in brownish gray-black on ivory wove paper, 1878. 172x263 mm; 6 3/4x10 5/8 inches, full margins. First state (of 2), with areas of pooled wash along the upper left edge before the masking of the plate and its reduction to 259 mm width. An early proof before the second state edition of approximately 100 printed on light blue laid appliqué. A brilliant, richly-inked and atmospheric impression of this extremely scarce, early and important lithograph.
Ex-collection Marie von Gomperz to her niece Henriette Hainisch; thence by descent; private collection, Austria; Dorotheum, Vienna, December 19, 2001; private collection, New York.
Spink notes only 6 impressions in the first state in public collections. We have found only 16 other impressions of this subject in the second (final) state and only this one first state (proof) impression at auction in the past 30 years. Way 5; Levy 11; Spink 8.
