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Quatre Baigneuses
dans un Paysage
Gilbert 36 (
see also Sawyer, p. 26, and Lee, 38)
drypoint engraving,
circa 1908*, on yellowish-orange medium-weight simili-japon paper,
the exceedingly rare 1st state (of two?**), a fine (and possibly
unique?) impression, with rich velvety burr, and several inherent
printing irregularities due to expeditive wiping (e.g. the horizontal
trace of heavy inking in the lower foreground) that clearly mark
its nature as a working proof, signed in pencil by the artist,
with good margins, two marked printing creases (of which one
extends into the subject upper right), several short tears in
the upper margin, two small staple holes beneath the subject,
some slight ink spotting on the reverse, otherwise in rather
good condition
P. 276 x 198mm., S.
443 x 370mm.
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Provenance: the Maurice
Gobin collection, with the small MG wetstamp in blue (Lugt 1124a)***
As of 1907-8, Derain's
painting renounced vibrant colour for structured form, and at
the same time his printmaking relinquished the thick fauvist contour
for rich facetted tonal fields of hatching and cross-hatching,
building figure and ground as if he were sculpting directly into
the plate. The parallel with Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon
is clear, as the two had already worked together, and were indeed
rivals.
This exceptional working
proof reveals an exploratory approach, the planar features but
roughed out, as if Derain were feeling his way through uncharted
territory. It should be compared with the finished state to get
a better idea of his progression.
This print was only editioned
in 1913, which further stresses the importance of the present
impression.
* The dating of this
print is from Eva Gilbert (see her unpublished doctoral dissertation,
1985) on the basis of stylistic criteria in Derain's painting,
and accepted by E. Pernoud.
**These states are not
developed in any of the known catalogues; there are no impressions
of this print in the Bibliothèque Nationale and
Gilbert inventories 7 impressions in public collections, all of
the definitive state. Furthermore this 1st state impression is
annotated by Maurice Gobin as an "Epreuve probablement unique."
***Maurice Gobin was
a prominent print dealer and connoisseur with a shop on the rue
Lafitte, active until the early 1950s. In this context it should
be noted that the impressions bearing his wetstamp come from his
own private collection rather than his commercial inventory.
