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Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), L’Employe des Pompes Funebres (The Mortician), color etching, 1902, signed and annotated (essai l’eau forte in 2 planches) in pencil lower left [also signed and dated in the plate lower left]. Reference: Sylvan Laboureur 29, only state (a line plate, then color plate(s). Printed on a cream laid paper with the watermark ARCHES. In excellent condition, the full sheet with deckle edging, 7 3/4 x 9, the sheet 10 3/4 x 14.
Provenance: Alfred Beurdeley, Paris (Lugt 421, stamp lower right recto); Eric Carlson, New York
A fine fresh impression of this early Laboureur rarity. A trial proof in colors.
S. Laboureur notes that there were three impressions of the line plate made before colors; then some trial proofs, then a numbered grouping (1-10); approximately 20 impressions altogether. The line plate has been canceled.
Although this impression is annotated as being made in 2 plates, and the Laboureur catalog raisonne also notes “deux planches”, the publication “Jean-Emile Laboureur: A Centenary Tribute” (French Institute/Alliance Francaise, New York, 1977) lists this print as made with three plates. The coloring is so complex that the latter number may well be correct.
