album
Art dealers and publishers responded to the growing popularity of original prints in the fin de siècle by producing albums by a wide variety of artists.
Connoisseurs — mostly members of the urban bourgeoisie — could subscribe to these print albums, which were published in limited-edition instalments, to build up a varied collection of contemporary art prints.
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L’Estampe originale
The most successful and progressive print album was André Marty’s L’Estampe originale, which ran to ninety-five lithographs, etchings and woodcuts, and was published in nine instalments of one hundred each.
It was limited in principle to original prints that were both designed and executed by the artists themselves.
The contributing printmakers were young and old, emerging and established. Marty also invited artists who did not ordinarily make prints to contribute, as a result of which the collection offers a marvellous survey of artistic trends at the end of the nineteenth century.
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Lesser-known albums
The success of L’Estampe originale encouraged other champions of fine-art printmaking to publish albums too.
The art dealer Ambroise Vollard, for instance, asked both young and established artists to make colour lithographs for his Album des peintres-graveurs and Album d'estampes originales de la Galerie Vollard.
The album L’Epreuve by the artist Maurice Dumont consisted of deluxe editions which, in addition to the final impression of the print, included trial proofs that offered an insight into the artistic process.
Further Reading
Donna M. Stein, Donald H. Karshan, L'Estampe originale. A catalogue raisonné, New York 1970
Jean-Pierre Seguin, Maurice Dumont 1869-1899: peintre-graveur, illustrateur, poète et éditeur de l'Epreuve, Paris 1991
Janine Bailly-Herzberg, Dictionnaire de l'estampe en France.1830-1950, Paris 1992
