Jacques
Villon

Jacques Villon, Bernadette, aquatint, 1899

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.

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)