MOURLOT’S CATALOGUE OF BRAQUE’S LITHOGRAPHS, WITH THREE ORIGINAL PRINTS

BRAQUE, Georges. Braque Lithographe. Préface de Francis Ponge. Notices et Catalogue Établis de Fernand Mourlot. Paris: André Sauret, (1963). Small folio (10 by 12-1/2 inches), original illustrated cream French-folded wrappers. $750.

Limited edition, number 2832 of 4125 copies, of this authoritative catalogue raisonné of Braque’s lithographs, with three original lithographs (cover, frontispiece and title vignette) and 146 color images.

“Perspective is a ghastly mistake which it has taken four centuries to redress” (Georges Braque). Regarding Braque’s early works, the critics were unsparing. “Mr. Braque,” wrote Louis Vauxcelles in the Gil Blas review of November 14, 1908, “is a daring young man, he despises form, and reduces everything, landscapes, people, houses, to geometric diagrams, to cubes.” Braque made his first lithograph in 1921— a still-life “Verres et fruits.” Among his best known are “Feuilles couleur lumière” (1954) and “Vol de nuit” (1957), both in collaboration with Fernand Mourlot. Mourlot ran the lithography press on the rue de Chabrol in Paris, where the likes of Braque, Matisse, and Picasso came to have their designs printed and to learn about this still nascent medium. Braque experimented with all materials related to lithography, but relied on the printer to help him realize his finished designs. This luxuriously printed catalogue of Braque’s lithographs represents the full range of the artist’s familiar imagery, from birds, still lifes, and portraiture, to calligraphic abstractions. The prints are accompanied by Mourlot’s notes on the techniques and first impressions of individual works. “There is a part of France’s honor called Braque, because a country’s honor is also determined by what it gives to the world” (André Malraux). Text in French.

Prints fine, edge-wear and vertical crease to spine panel of original wrapper, small tear to bottom of rear turn-in.