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拍品专文
Charles Maurin revolutionized the print process in the 1890s with his innovations of graphic colour, following Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's steps. The latter is thought to have invented the spraying of pigments onto the lithographic stone in November 1893, achieving a spatter effect to speed up his print-making. In 1893-1894, Maurin took this technique even further, describing it as 'le procédé au vaporisateur', when it was first referred to in the Exposition de La Dépêche de Toulouse that May. Vaporization allowed for a uniquely beautiful sense of surface, an unmatched quality of the immaterial, a scintillation of the atmosphere - sky, hills and sea being favorite subjects.
Yet Maurin's most beautiful 'compositions au vaporisateur' are his 'nocturnes', of which the present lot is an exclusive example. The title Nocturne counterparts the works of Maurin's contemporary musician, Debussy, yet the tone is muted by the composition, similar to that of Japanese prints. Yvanhoé Rambosson reviewed an exhibition at Ambroise Vollard's gallery in 1895, describing Maurin's invention as the 'triumph of Impressionism' (La Plume, 15 November 1895).
At his one-man show in 1895, hosted by Vollard, Maurin told the dealer: 'I can accept any number of orders now, for I've discovered a shortcut to turn things out very quickly. I just draw the outlines and then, by process I've invented I powder the color and spray it on the drawing' (C. Eisler in exh. cat., Charles Maurin, The Vaporizer Watercolors: A hitherto unknown development of the 1890s, New York, 1986). Ironically, these 'peintures au vaporisateur', initially invented to develop a quicker colour print process, are extremely rare and unique as Maurin never went on to make such works in quantity.
Yet Maurin's most beautiful 'compositions au vaporisateur' are his 'nocturnes', of which the present lot is an exclusive example. The title Nocturne counterparts the works of Maurin's contemporary musician, Debussy, yet the tone is muted by the composition, similar to that of Japanese prints. Yvanhoé Rambosson reviewed an exhibition at Ambroise Vollard's gallery in 1895, describing Maurin's invention as the 'triumph of Impressionism' (La Plume, 15 November 1895).
At his one-man show in 1895, hosted by Vollard, Maurin told the dealer: 'I can accept any number of orders now, for I've discovered a shortcut to turn things out very quickly. I just draw the outlines and then, by process I've invented I powder the color and spray it on the drawing' (C. Eisler in exh. cat., Charles Maurin, The Vaporizer Watercolors: A hitherto unknown development of the 1890s, New York, 1986). Ironically, these 'peintures au vaporisateur', initially invented to develop a quicker colour print process, are extremely rare and unique as Maurin never went on to make such works in quantity.