22
●
CLAUDE MONET
AND
GEORGE W. THORNLEY
Fillette, dans l’allée d’un parc, portant des
bouquets
.
Lithograph printed in violet-rose on cream
Chine appliqué
, circa 1892. 178x228 mm;
7x9 inches, full margins. Artist’s proof,
aside from the edition of 25. Signed by
both Monet and Thornley in pencil,
lower margin. Printed by Belfond, Paris.
A superb, richly-inked impression of this
very scarce Impressionist lithograph.
Monet likely acted on the advice of Edgar
Degas,who had collaborated withThornley
on a suite of lithographs after his drawings
(see Reed/Shapiro 25b) during the late-
1880s, when he decided to create the
current work. Degas was influenced to
work with the lithographer Thornley by
Theo Van Gogh, the prominent director
of the Boussod-Valadon Gallery, as a result
of Thornley’s masterful lithographic
interpretations of drawings by Puvis de
Chavannes. By 1888, Degas andThornley
were working together to produce a
portfolio of 15 lithographs based on
drawings by Degas.This portfolio, as well
as subsequent sets by Thornley working
with both Monet and Camille Pissarro,
was issued in an edition of 100, plus an
additional 25 copies with each of the
prints signed by both artists.
Aside from these lithographs,Monet stands
alone as the sole Impressionist painter
who did not produce any additional
prints. In his seminal work on the subject,
Passeron wrote, “Finally there is the case
of Claude Monet, regarded as the most
Impressionist of the Impressionists:without
even volunteering an explanation, it
would seem, and although approached to
produce such works, he never in fact made
a single print,” (
Impressionist Prints
, New
York, 1974, page 12).
[12,000/18,000]
