Yvette Guilbert (Frontispice for Yvette Guilbert)

1898

11 5/8 x 13 7/8 in /
27.9 x 33.0 cm

Title page for the Yvette Guilbert series
Edition of 350 impressions
Monogram on the stone, lower left; signed by Yvette Guilbert and Lautrec
Hand-made paper
Published by Bliss, Sands & Co., London
RARE

In March 1898, Lautrec was working on a second portfolio of nine depictions of Yvette Guilbert. It was to be published to mark the London appearance in May of the diseuse, who was now internationally famous, and it became known as the Serie Anglaise; however, as Yvette informed Lautrec on 6 May 1898, the engagement had to be cancelled at short notice and postponed until the following year. Nevertheless, the London publishers Bliss and Sands decided to go ahead with the portfolio, and Lautrec's lithographs were published with a text by Arthur Byl.

What distinguishes this series, published at the end of April 1898, from the series which had appeared four years earlier, is the close-up view adopted by Lautrec, which concentrates on the face, taking far less notice of the general scene; indeed, the singer is hardly ever shown full-length. Unlike his earlier use of the graphic medium, with its bravura delight in delicately sprayed detail, here the artist relies on the interplay of the sweeping chalk strokes and broad shading to convey deep psychological penetration.

References: Wittrock 271, Adriani 250