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Quatre Baigneuses
dans un Paysage
(Gilbert 36;
see also Sawyer, p. 26, and Lee, p. 38)
drypoint engraving,
circa 1908*, on heavy cream-yellow laid paper, with the BFK Rives
and Eugene Delâtre watermarks, the rare 2nd state (of two?**),
a very fine impression, with substantial burr, signed in pencil
by the artist, with full margins (deckle edges all around), a
few scattered foxmarks (essentially visible on the reverse),
slight time-staining along the upper sheet edge, otherwise in
excellent condition
P. 276 x 198mm., S.
610 x 440mm.
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Provenance: the Maurice
Gobin collection, with the large MG wetstamp in blue (Lugt 1124b)***
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.
It is interesting here
to be able to compare the two states, this one being remarkably
well finished. The present impression is most probably from the
sole 1913 edition by Kahnweiler of 35 impressions, which was not
systematically signed or numbered (see below).
* 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print is from Eva Gilbert (see her unpublished doctoral dissertation,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 and there are no impressions
of this print in the Bibliothèque Nationale. Gilbert
inventories 7 impressions in public collections, all of the definitive
state, only a few of them signed, and only one numbered.
***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. Furthermore
it should be added that the present impression was probably the
one exhibited in the 1955 André Derain show at the Bibliothèque
Nationale, its provenence from the Maurice Gobin collection cited
in Gilbert.
