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Fille aux
Gros Seins et Femme Vieille
[Girl with Large Breasts and Old Woman]
Pétridès 16
drypoint
engraving*, 1908, a
fine "monotyped" impression, with selective wiping and plate tone,
signed lower right in pencil, numbered "6/20" lower left, annotated "pointe sèche" in the lower right
corner, on medium-weight cream laid paper, with a partial "Ingres 1871"
watermark**, with good (full?)
margins, before the 1932 Daragnès edition ***;
the sheet however has been poorly conserved:
some surface soiling and handling creases, maculations, indentations,
scuffing and a few foxmarks, several pinholes, notably all along the
upper edge, slight waterstaining lower left corner, lower right corner
torn, a few very small tears in the margins, otherwise
in reasonably good
condition
P. 332 x 293 mm., S. 436 x 376 mm.
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Suzanne Valadon here
eliminates the setting completely, focussing on the figural counterpoint (old/young, dressed/nude,
working/idling, bent-over/outstretched),
around three grouped props that structure the composition (tub,
fauteuil and drapery); she further uses the printing technique to
advantage in her inking of the plate.
Pétridès (E16) does not
mention the existence of an early numbered edition of this print, but
the present impression may be dated approximately to the time the plate
was etched, this on the basis of the 1871 watermark (see note below).
* This print is usually
designated as a "drypoint" (cf. Pétridès), which is further attested by
the annotation, as well as the texture of the line. Suzanne
Valadon's working technique here though differs markedly from the
usual sense of drypoint engraving as she seems to have belabored each
line, creating a central
furrow that is clearly seen under magnification in raking light (detail);
each line is so charged that it literally stands out as an embossed
contour on the verso.
** We have seen this
paper on a number of works specifically dating to 1905-1910, notably
several Picasso drawings from 1907-1908 in the Metropolitan Museum of
Art (see the catalogue of Picasso
in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York, 2010, notably the Technical
Note on page 94), or for example an André Derain woodcut, Frise, Adhemar 12, 1906 (PIASA
sale, 8 December, 2005).
*** This large-format album (Dix-Huit Planches Originales de Suzanne
Valadon, gravées de 1895 à 1910,
Daragnes, Paris 1932), with a preface by Claude Roger-Marx, contained
eighteen original prints, and printed in an edition of 75.
