Art nouveau
Most of the prints in L’Estampe Moderne were colour lithographs with decorative images of women. The flowing hair, elegant robes and floral patterns are typical of Art nouveau and reflected the tastes of the general public. Each print came with a separate sheet containing an appropriate extract from contemporary literature.
Mass taste
L’Estampe Moderne was financially successful, but the album was disparaged by print connoisseurs, who found the participating artists insufficiently progressive or important, the edition too large, and the quality of the paper and printing techniques inferior. In his survey of the most important printmakers in 1898, the critic André Mellerio dismissed the album as ‘banal’.
Henri Evenepoel, In the Public Garden (Au square) from the album L'Estampe moderne (Album VII), 1897
Edmond Aman-Jean, Beneath the Flowers (Sous les fleurs) from the album Album L'Estampe moderne (Album IX), 1898
Hans Christiansen, L'Heure du bergère from the album L'Estampe moderne (Album XI), 1898
Further reading
- André Mellerio, La lithographie originale en couleurs, Paris, 1898
- Tony Palmer, Anne Willsford (eds.), L'Estampe moderne (The Modern Print), exhib. cat., Canberra (Australian National Gallery), 1983
- Adventures in the Print Trade (accessed 8 April 2015)