Description
TWO LARGE SIGNED WATERCOLOURS ON LITHOGRAPHIC BACKGROUNDS TO ILLUSTRATE VIRGIL'S BUCOLIQUES.
Rare preparatory work for the monumental edition of the Bucolic of Virgil translated by Paul Valery during the years 1942-1944 for the "Scripta et Picta" Society and established by Doctor A. Roudinesco in 1955.
These watercolours, in the format of an unfolded double page, correspond to one of the very first stages of the illustration work. After imposing a black lithographic background (note the markings on the stones, which would later disappear), Villon painted the plates in full colour in order to explore the future colours he would use on the lithographic stones. These original colours are different from the final lithographic result chosen for the book.
The book makes it clear that "The images were drawn on stone in colour by Jacques Villon, who engraved each colour on a different stone in his own hand. Three hundred and twenty stones were used. The lithographs were printed by Célestin on the Mourlot Frères presses.."
The final plates correspond to numbers E 571 and E 577 of the Catalogue Raisonné, Jacques Villon: Prints and IllustrationsGinestet & Poullon.
The ends of the marks have been exposed without damaging the images.
