Swann Galleries - 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings

●

CLAUDE MONET

AND

GEORGE W. THORNLEY

La côte rocheuse

Lithograph on

Chine appliqué

, before 1892. 210x260 mm; 8

x10

inches, full margins.

Edition of 25. Signed in pencil by Monet andThornley, lower margin, and withThornley’s

red ink stamp, lower right. Printed by Belfond, Paris, with the blind stamp (Lugt 225d,

lower left recto). Published by Goupil, Paris. From

L’Album de 20 lithographies d’après les

tableaux de Claude Monet

. A brilliant, dark impression of this scarce print.

At the end of the 19th century, Monet (1840-1926), Edgar Degas (1834-1917) and

Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) rediscovered lithography as a medium both to recreate their

artistic conceptions on paper and, simultaneously, achieve widespread distribution of and

acclamation for their work. These artists, who had invented new ways of transmitting

impressions of light and color, engaged George William Thornley (1857-1935), an

accomplished English lithographer and admirer of the Impressionists, to translate their

designs into lithographs.The prints that emerged from these collaborative efforts are the

only lithographs in color, save one by Pissarro, by these great Impressionist artists.

Until he met Thornley, Monet had evidenced no interest in making prints. Unlike Degas

and Pissarro, who etched on copper and drew on stone or transfer paper, or Cézanne,

Sisley and Renoir, who collaborated with Auguste Clot, the talented Parisian msaster

printer, to create color lithographs, Monet either found printmaking too daunting or did

not seek the public acclaim for his work that printmaking could provide. However, he

was able to find a hospitable partner in Thornley.The resulting collaborative lithographs

of landscapes and seascapes, signed by Monet in pencil, are informed with the elusive and

shimmering light of his iconic Impressionist oil paintings.

[15,000/20,000]