Storytellers

Rembrandt Dürer Atche Chagall Frankenthaler Picasso Calder Miró Dali Renoir Matisse Albers Hirst Motherwell Francis Rosenquist Sultan Dine Rembrandt Dürer Atche Chagall Frankenthaler Picasso Calder Miró Dali Renoir Matisse Albers Hirst Motherwell Francis Rosenquist Sultan Dine Rembrandt Dürer Atche Chagall Frankenthaler Picasso Calder Miró Dali Renoir Matisse Albers Hirst Motherwell Francis Rosenquist Sultan Dine Rembrandt Dürer Atche Chagall Frankenthaler S torytellers Picasso Calder Miró Picasso, DaliChagall, Renoir Matisse Matisse & More Albers Hirst Motherwell Francis Rosenquist Sultan Dine Rembrandt Dürer AtcheG Chagall Frankenthaler Picasso Calder Miró Dali Renoir Matisse Albers Hirst Motherwell Francis Rosenquist Sultan Dine Pablo Picasso, Jacqueline Lisant, lithograph, 26 x 19 3/4”

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Introduction “Storytellers” has long been on our list of exhibitions to share with our Galerie d’Orsay community, and seeing it culminate at this moment with this stellar collection is a great joy. The title of the show has several meanings – first, to unequivocally celebrate our love of books with our friends and collectors in our great scholarly city of Boston. When we acquired the magnificent “Jacqueline Reading” by Pablo Picasso, (see cover) along with other favorites we had been seeking, the long-planned show finally came to fruition.

Secondly, we wish to explore the rich history of the artist’s book – a trend popular from the late 19th century and extending into the 1970s. Nearly every major artist of the last century experimented with the illustrated book - creating a grouping of artworks that draws inspiration from a particular source including ancient folk tales, mythology, contemporary novels and poetry. We are particularly proud to showcase many of the most sought-after illustrated books ever created, and want to highlight our original one-of-a-kind preparatory studies for the celebrated Bible series by Marc Chagall (see page 17 - 19). The exceptional imagery with authentication from the Chagall Committee makes each of these outstanding originals a superb opportunity for our collectors.

Lastly, we wish to highlight the cherished history surrounding works of art in this exhibition. What captivates art historians and art lovers most is reveling in the details about an object’s creation and interpretation: knowing what had happened in the artist’s life, how the object was created, how it was interpreted and what it means to each of us. We have included a glimpse of our favorite stories in this catalog, and look forward to sharing these beloved works in detail with you.

Kristine Feeks Hammond, Co-Director & Art Historian

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Pablo Picasso Arguably the greatest painter and most innovative sculptor of the twentieth century, Pablo Picasso was also its foremost printer. His graphic oeuvre spanning over several decades from 1899 to 1972.

His published prints total approximately 2,000 different images pulled from metal, stone, wood, linoleum, and celluloid.

Picasso’s prints demonstrate his intuitive and characteristic ability to recognize and exploit the possibilities inherent in any medium in which he chose to work. Once he had mastered the traditional methods of a print medium, like etching on metal, Picasso usually experimented further, pursuing, for example, scarcely known intaglio techniques such as sugar-lift aquatint.

Always the innovator, Picasso astonished the best printmakers again and again by not only mastering the difficulties of new techniques with playful ease, but obtaining results that had hithero been deemed impossible. A virtuoso craftsman in engraving, etching, lithography and linocut, Picasso explored their secrets with patience and love, eliciting from each medium the subtlest effects they were capable of yielding. It is hardly surprising that five, ten or even thirty states were sometimes necessary before a masterpiece emerged from his hands.

Buste Au Fond Etoile, 1949, Lithograph, 26� x 20�

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Picasso’s relations with his wives and mistresses influenced his art tremendously. It has been said that Picasso changed his companions as often as he changed printing styles.

Picasso met Jacqueline at Perpignan during the summer of 1953. In the autumn of the following year, Picasso and Jacqueline began to live together. Just as with Marie-Thérèse Walter, the other great love in Picasso’s life, so Jacqueline quickly became present in all the artist’s work. Like Marie-Thérèse, Jacqueline, little by little, began to haunt the artist’s hand whether he drew, painted, cut sheet metal, modeled clay or decorated pottery. He created more works of art inspired by Jacqueline than any other of his loves.

Jacqueline Lisant, 1974, Lithograph, 38” x 27”

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Lysistrata suite

Accords Entre les Guerriers, 1934, Etching, 8” x 5.5”

Le Serment des Femmes, 1934,Etching, 8” x 5.5”

Le Banquet, 1934, Etching, 8” x 5.5”

Lysistrata, the third and concluding play of Aristophanes’ War and Peace Series, is named after the ambitious heroine of the play who aims to end the Peloponnesian War by organizing a sex strike among the women of the warring regions. Picasso illustrated this wonderful tale in the height of his classical period of the 1930’s. In six etchings, Picasso depicts this comical and surprisingly modern story written in 411 BC.

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vollard suite The Vollard Suite, Picasso’s most well known and highly sought-after suite, is revered for its brilliant compositions, delicate line and classic subject matter. These fine works on paper are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, NY, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY & The National Gallery in Washington to name a few. Picasso had became enamored with Greek Mythology in the late twenties, and by the late thirties, his example had a considerable influence on the Surrealists.

La Taberna, Jeune Pécheur Catalan Racontant sa Vie á un Vieux Pécheur Barbu, 1934, Etching, 9” x 12”

Two sailors wearing Phrygian caps, are seen here drinking at a table. One of them, heavily worked in line, is smoking a pipe while listening to a story told by the other, who is merely sketched in outline. The fact that the storyteller is reduced here to his simplest form shows that it is the story he is telling and the interest of the pipe-smoker which are the most important elements of the composition. Picasso has made here a reference to Greek mythology and the figures of Theseus and Oedipus in his storytelling approach.

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David Et Bethsabée (After Lucas Cranach), 1949, Lithograph, 25.5” x 19”

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Jacqueline lisant, 1962, multi-layered palimpsest of linocutwith ink and oil painting and cut paper collage, 25.5” x 21”

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Tete De Feme -1 er Etat - Essai Blanc sur Fond Rouge, 1962, 25.5” x 21” on verso

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Marc Chagall The master of color and the dream, 20th century artistic giant Marc Chagall stayed true to his unique artistry resulting in voice unlike any other of his time.

The first living artist ever to be added to the permanent collection of the Louvre, Paris, it is his ability to capture joy, romance, and the sensation of falling in love that calls out to viewers’ hearts and continues to draw enthusiasts to his work time and again.

Marc Chagall was born on July 7, 1887, in Vitebsk, Russia. From 1907 to 1910 he studied in Saint Petersburg, at the Imperial Society for the Protection of the Arts, and later with Léon Bakst. In 1910 he moved to Paris, where he associated with Guillaume Apollinaire and Robert Delaunay and encountered Fauvism and Cubism. He participated in the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon d’Automne in 1912. His first solo show was held in 1914 at Der Sturm gallery in Berlin.

Multiflore, 1974, Lithograph, 38” x 27”

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Roses Et Mimosa, 1975, Lithograph, 26” x 20.5”

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Daphnis & Chloe Suite In 1959, Efstratios Tériade, the publisher of the vastly influential 20th century art review Verve, approached Chagall suggesting that he undertake a new project, illustration of Daphnis & Chloe, the first known pastoral romance novel written by the 3rd century Greek author Longus. Idyllic in nature, the tale tells the improbable but charming story of the love of Daphnis, a shepherd, the son of Hermes and a nymph (who was revered as the inventor of pastoral music), and the shepherdess Chloe. The idea of reviving and illustrating this story, which had been widely popular primarily in France and England throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, is one that greatly appealed to Chagall. He began his preparation by making two trips to Greece, traveling there to absorb the inspiration of the Greek landscape. Over the course of three years, Chagall worked on this project creating images which glow with an almost ecstatic color in which he exploits the whole range of tones and textures of lithography. In Daphnis & Chloe, Chagall succeeded in transforming a personal dream into a universal Eden where the figures seem to float in an atmosphere of infinite happiness whose warmth is all pervasive.

The forty-two lithographs which comprise the album have since their release been heralded as the very greatest achievement of Chagall’s entire graphic oeuvre.

Arrival of Dionysophanes, 1961, Lithograph, 17” x 12”

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The Bird Chase, 1961, Lithograph, 17” x 25.25”

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Left Image: Mégaclés Reconnait Sa Filla Pendant, 1961, Lithograph, 17” x 25”

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Chloe’s Judgement, 1961, Lithograph, 17” x 25”

“But Dorcon, the cowherd who had pulled Daphnis out of the pit, had fallen in love with Chloe that very day. He began by bringing them presents. Then having come to be regarded as a friend, he gradually took less to Daphnis but kept bringing Chloe presents every day. Having had no experience of the methods employed by lovers, Chloe was only too glad to accept presents because she thus had something to give Daphnis. One day – for it was now Daphnis’s turn to realize what love meant – he and Dorcon engaged in a beauty-contest. Chloe was the judge, and the prize for victory was the privilege of kissing Chloe.”

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The Little Swallow, 1961, Lithograph, 17” x 13”

“A Grasshopper that fled from a Swallow, took sanctuary in Chloe’s bosom. By reason of her close pursuit, flapped the girl upon the cheek. She, not knowing what was done, cried out and awoke from her sleep. But when she saw the Swallow flying nearby, and Daphnis laughing at her fear, she began to give it over, and rub her eyes that yet were sleeping.

The grasshopper sang out from her bosom, as if her suppliant were giving thanks for the protection. Chloe then squealed, but Daphnis could not stop laughing, nor pass the opportunity to put his hand into her bosom and draw forth the grasshopper, which still did sing even in his hand.”

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Lamon’s and Dryas’s Dream, 1961, Lithograph, 17” x 13”

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Bible Suite Chagall worked on the Bible series over a twenty-five year period, first painting the gouaches that served as models for the works while on a visit to Palestine in 1931. He completed sixty-six of the plates before Vollard’s death in 1939. After a brief period of imprisonment under the Vichy government, Chagall made his way to New York where he lived until the end of the war. The artist settled permanently in France in 1948, and returned to The Bible Series project four years later, finishing the project in 1956 (published in 1960).

In completing the series, Chagall chose to illustrate Biblical scenes that reflected the recent experience of the Jews in Europe. The later episodes of The Bible Series feature the Israelites’ escape from Egyptian slavery, struggles led by Joshua, Saul, David and Solomon to establish a homeland for the Israelites, and the suffering and redemption of the Jews as told by the prophets Elijah, Isaiah and Jeremiah.

Esther et Mardochée, 1959, Ink Wash, Indian ink and Pencil on Paper, 14” x 10.5”

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Ange, 1960, Ink Wash, Indian ink and Pastel on Paper, 16” x 11.75”

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David et Goliath, 1965, Pastel, Ink Wash and Pencil on Paper, 20” x 12.75”

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Circus Suite Chagall’s superlative compositions and avant-garde lithographic technique are most evident in his celebrated Circus Suite. Executed during the pinnacle of his print-making oeuvre, the Circus Suite is the finest of Chagall’s “livres d’artiste” (artist’s books) and one of the most revered editions of last century. Charlies Sorlier, Chagall’s lithographer and assistant, remarked that the artist took “child-like pleasure” in the circus; however what really fascinated him was not strictly the entertainment – it was the journey of the imagination and the contrast of emotion… It was the journey of the imagination, and the contrast of emotions he saw befall the performer’s reality once the crowd evaporated from the theater and the show ceased. Despite a troubled life - enduring the sudden death of his wife, being ostracized from his native Russia and seeking political asylum in the U.S. to escape Nazi persecution - Chagall persistently filled his imaginative compositions with joy, romance, music and whimsy.

Le Cirque, 1967, Lithograph, 17” x 12”

Le Cirque, 1967, Lithograph, 17” x 26”

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Henri Matisse Beloved for his vibrant and exuberant use of color, Henri Matisse contributed greatly to several art movements, including Neo-Impressionism & Fauvism, throughout the course of his illustrious career. The Jazz Suite, created in 1947, is particularly recognized for Matisse’s superb use of color, in addition to his innovative technique of utilizing cutouts & stencils in creating these stunning hand-colored pochoir works (precursor to silk screening & screen printing). For combining Matisse’s beautiful arabesque text and flowing linear cutouts, the Jazz Suite is considered the greatest artist’s book of all time.

Matisse also experimented with the impact of pure lines. His Pasiphae suite is widely admired for the simplicity behind his illustrations for the modern retelling of classic Greek mythology. Modeling his imagery on ancient Greek black-figure vase painting, he re-cut some images as many as a dozen times before he was satisfied with every line and formal relationship.

Icarus, Lithograph, 16.5” x 12.75”

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Le Coeur, 1947, Handcolored Pochoir, 16.5” x 25.75” Le Cow-Boy, 1947, Handcolored Pochoir, 16.5” x 25.75”

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Left Image:Dors, Dormeuse Aux Longs Cils, 1944, Linoleum Engraving, 9.75” x 7” Center Image: Tenebres de Moi-Meme, Je M’Abadonne a Vous, 1944, Linoleum Engravings, 9.75” x 12.75” Right Image: Seule, Au Pied Du Grand Caroubier, 1981, Linoleum Engravings, 9.75” x 7”

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Pasiphaé Suite While Matisse is highly celebrated for his vibrant use of color and innovative artistic techniques, such as the brilliant pochoir for his “Jazz Suite” that was recently celebrated at Tate Modern and MoMA, he is also beloved for the simplicity behind this iconic suite. The simplicity of Pasiphaé created in 1944, exhibits incomparable power. Modeling his imagery on ancient Greek black-figure vase painting, he re-cut some images as many as a dozen times before he was satisfied with every line and formal relationship.

When the first edition of Pasiphaé was issued in an edition size of 250 in 1944, the author of the modern retelling illustrated by Matisse, Montherlant, wrote to him immediately “What I have seen exceeds all my expectations. All those white lines on a background of cosmic night really gives the impression as if of eternity. I am satisfied and thrilled. Your work on Pasiphaé dives to the bottom of the ages to join my Faustian conception of this work; it is filled with vigor, youth and eternity. I have seen Pasiphaé in its final form.”

These works are such a testament to Matisse’s brilliant understanding and use of gorgeous flowing lines.

J’ irari ce que J’ai Voulu, Sans Fierte Comme Sans Remords, 1944, Linoleum Engravings 9.75” x 12.75”

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La Japonaise au bord de l’eau, 1905, Watercolor Study, 10” x 8”

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Head of a Young Girl (Marguerite) , 1906, Bronze, 6.25�

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Salvador Dali The metamorphosis of printmaking came in the 1930s with the arrival of Surrealist artists, Salvador Dali and Joan Miró. A native of Catalonia, Dali studied at the Madrid Academy where he emulated painters from Vermeer to de Chirico and explored the more avant garde styles of Impressionism and Cubism. Greatly influenced by the writing of Freud, Dali moved toward an “art of the unconscious”, which inspired his “metaphysical paintings”. In 1928, Dali moved to Paris and continued to write, paint and illustrate books.

Dali was a superb engraver and draftsman, creating images that combined sensuality and the macabre in playful visions of his creative and academic realities. Pierre Argillet, a prestigious publisher and photographer of great renown, worked with Dali for more than fifty years and their partnership resulted in the most sought-after editions of Dali’s career. Argillet commissioned Dali to illustrate suites pertaining to Greek mythology, the Hippies, Poems of Ronsard, Apollinarie, “Venus in Fur” and Goethe’s “Faust”.

As one of the most brilliantly provocative artists of the twentieth century, Dali has come to symbolize Surrealism and his name is one of the most recognized in the world.

Flower Woman with Soft Piano, 1969, Etching, 26” x 20”

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Argus in Color (Mythology Series), 1967, Etching, 15.5” x 19.25”

Drawing closely upon the symbolism of ancient Greek legends, Salvador Dali illustrated several figures of lore with his signature Surrealist twist. In addition to utilizing unconventional tools when working on this suite, such as chisels, nails or wheels, Dali employed what he called “hazard objectif ” (the meaningful manifestation of chance). Often beginning with an abstract smudge, created in a single motion, Dali developed his theme from this sign of fate, much like the Pythia of Delphi who interpreted the Oracle from the smoke emitting from the cave. This method is particular notable in Edipus & Sphinx, Theseus & Minotaurus, Jupiter, Pegasus and Milky Way.

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Joan Miró

Joan Miró first emerged onto the international art scene in 1918, among other influential early modernists, including Pablo Picasso, whom he met in Paris. While Miro’s early work showed a wide range of influences, including the bright colors of the Fauves and the broken forms of cubism, his style began to mature in the early 1920s under the influence of fellow surrealist poets and painters. Drawing on memory, fantasy and the irrational, Miro created works of art with twisted organic shapes and odd geometric constructions that served as visual representations of surrealist poetry.

Experimenting in a wide array of medias, Miro’s passion for poetry led him to concentrate on engraving and lithography.

He always felt and affirmed the vital need for him to surpass the limits of his art beyond painting. Poetry, more than music or novelists, was the magnetic pole that really led him to strengthening his creativity through engraving. From his first lithographs illustrating poet Tristan Tzara’s “L’arbre des voyageurs” to his first etchings illustrating surrealist poet Georges Hugnet, he became immersed in the Surrealist group and intense friendships with numerous poets of the time. More than any other artist during his era, Miro devoted a large part of his energy to the illustration of poets as he felt the graphic image and poetic image came from the same melting pot of ideas. He refused all constraints, letting the poetry run through him and inspiring his many engravings and illustrations. Through this collaboration, he found an opportunity to break away from the more solitary work of painting to engage with fellow artists and thinkers of his time.

Le Chef Des Équipages, 1973, Etching & Aquatint, 54.25” x 24”

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Left Image: Untitled from Fusées, 1959, Etching & Aquatint, 6” x 7” Right Image: Untitled from Fusées, 1959, Etching & Aquatint, 6” x 7”

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Harmensz Rembrandt Van Rijn

Rembrandt is recognized as a masterful artist who imbued his works – paintings, etchings, and drawings – with the deepest understanding and expression of the array of human emotion. However, as important as Rembrandt’s paintings and drawings are, it is his etchings that have left the most profound impression on the history of art. Rembrandt freed the technique of etching from its traditional bonds, giving the etched line the freedom and vibrancy that are natural to the process itself, and did so to such an extent that he defined the very notion of etching as a distinguished artistic medium.

In the early 1620’s, after leaving school, Rembrandt experimented for several years with etching. His earliest undated prints were produced about 1626 and the earliest dated prints were done in 1628. Rembrandt expressed his great genius in a series of studies, including portraits and Biblical subjects. His etchings, which numbered more than three hundred, were very well received, primarily due to the fine detail of the pieces. The execution of the plates was a rare and innovative accomplishment for his time.

Left Image: Christ Preaching (“La Petite Tombe”), 1657, Etching & Drypoint, 6” x 8” Faune Souriant (Smiling Faun) Right Image: Christ at Emmaus: The Smaller Plate, 1634, Etching & Drypoint, 4” x 3” c. 1948, Lithograph, 30 x 22”

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Faust, 1652, Etching, 8.25” x 6.5”

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William Bradley Bradley’s artistic style is considered a branch of Art Nouveau though it draws heavily from the aesthetics of the Arts and Crafts Movement and Japanese block printing. His work was often compared to that of his English contemporary, Aubrey Beardsley, so much so that some critics dismissed him as simply “The American Beardsley.” Bradley was already an established artist by the time Beardsley’s designs became popular in England in 1894. Bradley’s primary medium was posters, at the time a developing art form.

Poster art was pioneered at the turn of the century by French artists like Jules Chéret and Toulouse-Lautrec, but Bradley is credited with popularizing the two-dimensional poster style in the United States.

When Hearts are Trumps, Lithograph, 16” x 11”

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Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Lautrec was to lithography what Rembrandt was to etching. Like Rembrandt’s self-portraits, which were revolutionary in their exploration of human expression, Lautrec’s numerous paintings of the model Carmen Gaudin (c. 1880’s) successfully captured a range of human emotions. From fatigued laundress to indifferent prostitute, she came to embody a variety of disparate characters through his masterful touch.

Lautrec’s ability to “dissect” his model’s emotions both reflected a form of rigorous observation that marked the essence of scientific experimentation in the 19th century, and resulted from early childhood experiences. Growing up with an unexpressive mother and an absent father, Lautrec was trained at an early age to interpret the subtler nuances of tacit feelings.

La Passagére Du 54 - Promenade En, 1869, Lithograph, 25.25” x 18.5”

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Albert George Morrow Morrow was educated at the Government School of Art in Belfast, and won a scholarship to study in Kensington in 1882, where he began a lifelong friendship with the British sculptor Albert Toft. He contributed illustrations to the English Illustrated Magazine, Bits and Good Words. The artist exhibited eleven works at the Royal Academy, and illustrated books for children and adults, but he is best known for the hundreds of posters he designed, mainly for the theatre.

The New Woman, Lithograph, 15.5” x 11.25”

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M. Louise Stowell From at least 1889 on, Stowell was an exhibiting member of groups including the Rochester Art Club, the American Watercolor Society, and the New York Watercolor Club. Her work was exhibited not only in Rochester but nationally, and at least in 1896, in Leipzig, Germany. Stowell returned to teaching at Mechanics’ Institute 1905-08.

In addition to the watercolors for which she is best known, Stowell designed posters, illustrations, murals and bookbindings. Around 1910, an illness curtailed her ability to produce and exhibit art. At about the same time, she and the bookbinder Margaret Sterling (1873-1951) opened the “Masu Co.” and “Far East Shop,” at which they sold imported goods and art supplies. M. Louise Stowell died on February 8, 1930: she is buried in Rochester’s Mt. Hope Cemetery.

George Humphrey’s Bookstore, Lithograph, 15.5” x 11.25”

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Tolla Throughout her career, Tolla’s works have evolved from realistic and figurative to more expressive and semi-abstract forms. Using the ancient method of bronze casting, Tolla’s work embodies universal questions regarding the reasons for living and the complexity of the universe.

The suggestion of movement is strikingly present in these inanimate works. Tolla believes in an individual path that we all must work through in order to reach our spiritual goal. The soul, she believes, is a reflection of the universe and motivates our inner drive. Tolla uses the metaphor of climbing on various external props to express this. The “souls” in these sculptures use stairs, ladders and ropes to fulfill ambitions and aspirations.

Since 1995, Tolla has been working in her unique, naturalistic style, combining wood, metal, glass and bronze to create both maquette and monumental sculptures that delight private and corporate collectors worldwide.

“Literature encourages wisdom and improvement of universal conditions. Book after read book accumulates to a pile of knowledge, motivating the continuing quest for yet more information.”

Happy Books, 2017, Bronze, 13” x 10”

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First Books, 2017, Bronze, 39” Accumulating Knowledge, 2017, Bronze, 45”

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Created by Camille Super and Jenna Gazaille