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Bernadette
Ginestet &
Pouillon 21
aquatint, 1899, on
medium-weight cream laid paper (with a partial "ARCHES" watermark, a splendid and
possibly unique impression of an undescribed first
state, printed with narrow margins, signed lower right in pencil, two
short repaired tears in the lateral margins, and some vertical creasing
to the right, otherwise in good condition
P. 416x319mm., S.
456x349mm.
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Provenance: a private
Parisian collection
The present impression of this
important print constitutes an undescribed first state before the plate
was cut down and the composition reformatted*, and notably before the
abundant rework on the skirt, as well as the added signature and date
upper right.
Here, Bernadette seated on a
large settee marks a clear innovation in Villon's graphic repertory,
and correponds to a later illustration that was published in the 1902
issue of the Courrier Français
I:162.
*According to Ginestet
and Pouillon (p. 18), there were only a few trial proofs pulled in
black ["quelques épreuves d'essai en
noir"]; they give plate dimensions as 371x280mm,
(Cf. the impression at the
Philadelphia Museum of Art:
http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/54440.html?mulR=928126686|7)
