?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
JEAN-ÉMILE LABOUREUR Lassitude.
Color woodcut printed in violet, orange, blue, yellow, gray and black on cream wove paper, 1912. 240x268 mm; 9 1/2x10 1/2 inches, full margins. Third state (of 3). Signed and numbered 3/35 in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Féquet, Paris (only impressions from the first and second states were printed by the artist). A brilliant, richly-inked impression of this extremely scarce woodcut, with fresh colors.
Laboureur (1877-1943) was known as a versatile printmaker who mastered a variety of printmaking techniques throughout his career. Born in Nantes, France, he moved to Paris in 1895 to study law, but quickly became disinterested in the subject matter and enrolled at the Académie Julian, a prestigious art academy in Paris. Devoting himself to the study of printmaking, he learned wood engraving from the distinguished wood engraver Auguste Lepère, and etching and lithography from Henri Toulouse-Lautrec (see lots 88-91).
An avid traveler, he moved around Europe, America and Canada from 1899-1911. While in Germany, he studied European prints in the graphic cabinets in Dresden. His time spent in America included a tenure teaching at the Arts Students League in New York and the publication of his first series of prints in 1905 titled Etchings from PittsburghQL> His style developed over the years from an initial interest in Primitivism and the work of Paul Gauguin (see lots 78-82) to an exploration of Cubism (he is considered the first printmaker to show an interest in the modern movement). During World War I, he worked as a translator in the British Army and engraving became his preferred technique as it allowed him to continue to create art without having a studio. After the war he turned towards book design and illustration, working on 66 publications. Unfortunately, he suffered from hemiplegia in 1939, which led to the end of his career.
We have found only 4 other impressions at auction in the past 30 years. Laboureur 682.
