Otéro
Color lithograph on wove paper, c. 1900.
References: BN-IFF 82-2.
Likely from an edition of 20 or 25 impression. Extremely scarce. This is only the second time we have seen this print become available in 25 years. An arresting rendering of of the famous Spanish dancer. A couple of pencil annotations in the bottom sheet edge suggest the subject to be "Mlle Polaire". She was another famous Parisian cabaret dancer of the time. This is, however, a wrong identification. Otéro's acrobatic moves, with expressive arms and a leaping leg on the right side are the kind of movement she was known to perform.
Hermann-Paul's color lithograph, were, along with Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's, among the first fine art color lithographs. Before that time, color lithography was used exclusively in ephemera, such as posters, menus, birth announcements, pamphlets… Color lithography as a fine art arrived on the Parisian scene around the same time as Mary Cassatt created her first color intaglio prints. Both are groundbreaking printmaking of their time. The early color lithographs were quite simple. By 1900, while the artist had been refining his technique for color illustrations published in weeklies such as "L'Assiette au Beurre" or "Le Rire", both of which had brought him fame, he took up the lithographic technique again and created some of his most arresting, elegant, and whimsical color lithographs, before abandoning the technique for woodcuts around the start of World War I.
Signed "h. Paul" in the lower left sheet corner. Also seemingly annotated "25" in pencil in the lower right sheet corner.
A very fine impression in very good condition overall. The sheet is nevertheless creased, mostly in the bottom margin (and with a couple of tears). These do not affect the image. There are, however, two indentations in the back of the sheet, showing through to the front, but only visible in raking light (one indentation with an associated short tear). We'd be glad to send this work on approval. It remains a magnificent impression of a very scarce print.
