Alfredo Müller

La Grande Cascade de Saint Cloud

1905

La Grande Cascade de Saint Cloud Color aquatint on watermarked Arches J Perrigot paper, 1905 Signed by the artist in pencil lower right. (see photo) Edition: 100. Numbered "39" in pencil lower left. Titled in pencil verso Published by Edmund Sagot, Paris, his dry stamp lower right below signature. Image: 23-1/8 x 17-3/8" (58.7 x 44 cm.) From the British Museum: "Colour etcher. Born in Livorno from a family of wealthy Swiss cotton merchants, studied with Giuseppe Ciaranfi and Michele Gordigiani in Florence. In 1886 exhibited with Fattori, Achille Lega and Tommasi in the Prima Esposizione delle Belle Arti in Livorno. In 1888 he and his family moved to Paris, where he studied first with François Flameng until 1892 and later with Carolus-Duran. Müller remained in the French capital until the outbreak of the First World War, taking French citizenship in 1913. He worked in the countryside at Barbizon, Suresnes and elsewhere, but also made frequent visits to his native country, where he exhibited regularly in Florence with the Promotrice Fiorentine. His early work was indebted to Fattori and Plinio Nomellini, but he soon became interested in the Impressionists and was credited by the critic Mario Tinti with introducing the luminism of Monet into Italian art. Müller was a member of the Société des Artistes Indépendents and exhibited regularly in the Paris dealer George Petit's annual exhibitions of colour prints. He made his first print in 1896, a lithographic portrait of the poet Paul Verlaine in the Café Procope. The following year Müller made his first colour aquatints. Among them were a series of illustrations to Dante's Divine Comedy. In style his etchings and aquatints were influenced by Manuel Robbe. Very occasionally he combined drypoint or soft ground etching with aquatint. Müller's principal publisher was Pierrefort, who also issued prints by Toulouse-Lautrec. After 1903 he largely abandoned aquatint for pure etching. Fourteen of his colour etchings were reproduced over a number of months in the weekly magazine 'Le Courrier français'. Müller also made a small number of colour lithographs, some of which were published by the Parisian print dealer Sagot. A single monotype of Mallarmé done in 1911, thirteen years after the poet's death in 1898, is recorded. Müller made a few landscape prints and a couple of etchings of fishing boats, but his principal subject was young women in long dresses. Often there is an aura of fin-de-siècle wistfulness. When he returned to Italy, he lived first in Taormina, then in Florence, and finally settled in a villa at Settignano. Müller largely abandoned printmaking after 1914. Only three more prints by him made in 1920, 1925 and 1933 are recorded after he moved back to his native country. Müller was a regular exhibitor in Florentine exhibitions, the most significant of which was the 1922 Primaverile Fiorentina. He returned to France in 1930 where he died in 1939. (Text by Martin Hopkinson)" Said to rival the fountains at Versailles, La Grande Cascade is still turned on for a few hours every Sunday in June. The Grande Cascade, constructed in 1664-1665 by Antoine Le Pautre has survived. The château was expanded by Phillipe de France, duc d'Orléans in the 17th century, and finally enlarged by Marie Antoinette in the 1780s. Napoleon I and Napoleon III also used the palace, which was a U-shaped scheme of three sections, open to the east. Destroyed by fire (with the exception of a few outbuildings and its majestic garden) in 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War. The burned-out shell stood until 1891, when it was demolished. The gardens were replanned by André Le Nôtre...

untitled (Fishing Boats, Normandy) Soft Ground Etching, 1930 Signed and dated in pencil by the artist Sealed by the artist Annotated "Paris" Possibly a view of a fishing port in Norm...

L’Angelus (The Bell Tower) etching & drypoint, c. 1876 Signed in the plate with the artist's initials (see photo) Condition: Excellent Image/Plate size: 5 7/8 x 4 1/4 inches Sheet s...

Westminster Palace Etching, Drypoint, Aquatint, roulette and salt ground lift 1884 Depicts the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben Clock and Tower and the River Thames in the foreground. S...

Night Life at the Moulin Rouge Pen and ink drawing, c. 1890 Signed lower left (see photo) A scene of the night life near the Moulin Rouge, Paris. The Moulin Rouge is the famous cabaret located in the old wind mill building in the right distance of this image. It was the center of fin de siecle culture in Paris. Condition: Slight yellowing to the sheet from age. Sight size: 9 x 5 3/4 inches Frame size: 14-1/8 x 10-3/4 x 1/2" Provenance: Eric G. Carlson (1940-2016), art historian and noted art dealer François Clément Sommier, best known under the pseudonym “Henry Somm,” was born in Rouen in 1844. He attended the local École municipale des beaux-arts and went on in 1867 to Paris, where he studied under Isidore Pils (1813-1875). “Somm is above all a painter and his watercolors are much sought after; he has the painter’s eye to the highest degree imaginable.” Louis Morin, Somm’s fellow artist revealed in 1893 that while his training as an academic painter forged his draughsmanship and an acute eye for colors, Somm preferred and excelled in the graphic realm. Particularly prolific, he produced a very extensive corpus of 7,500 drawings and prints, many of which were widely reproduced in journals and magazines. In 1867, Somm’s career reached a turning point with the discovery of Japanese culture through his friendship with French collector and critic Philippe Burty and a visit to the Paris International Exhibition. More generally, Japanese art and especially Japanese woodblock prints exerted a heavy influence on French artists at the time, and especially on the Impressionists, who were particularly inspired by the subject matter, as well as the innovative use of perspective, composition and color. Although technically not an Impressionist by pure definition, Somm’s interest in the effect of atmospheric light on shadow and color prompted Edgar Degas to invite him to participate in their 4th exhibition in 1879. However, Somm did not exhibit again with the Impressionists, and was never considered a member of the group. Rather, his work intersects between Impressionism, Symbolism and Japonism. In fact, while his drypoints and etchings reflect a more literal borrowing of Japanese elements than the work of Whistler or Monet, they also clearly anticipate the future work of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Although Somm was 20 years older than Toulouse-Lautrec, both artists developed a friendship, as habitués of the Chat noir, a cabaret founded by Rodolphe Salis and located 84 boulevard de Rochechouart in Montmartre. More than a cabaret, the Chat noir also became an important gathering place for writers, poets, composers, musicians, and artists living in Montmartre. For Somm, a founding member of this artistic circle, it also served as a unique environment, where he could express his limitless imagination as active participant to the events – notably the literary soirées organized by the hydropathic group – and illustrator of the Chat noir journal. In 1886, Somm, in collaboration with Georges Auriol, initiated the Chat noir’s first puppet show, which subsequently evolved into shadow theater. Somm’s Japonism and sense of humor appealed to Toulouse-Lautrec, and this influence is echoed in Lautrec posters advertising two other Montmartre nightspots, namely Le Mirliton and Le Divan Japonais...

Dejeuner sur l'Herbe Lithograph, c. 1914 Edition: c. 100 Unsigned as issued by Vollard References And Exhibitions: Commissioned from Cezanne by Ambrose Vollard in the late 1890s Prin...

Paris: Gazette des Beaux Arts, 1896. Etching with aquatint on cream laid paper, 7 7/8 x 4 7/8 (200 x 125 mm), full margins. Edition of roughly 750. In good condition with uniform ton...

Paris: Cadart & Luquet, 1865. Etching on buff, cream laid paper, 9 3/8 x 13 7/8 inches, full margins. Printed by Delâtre, Paris, with the blindstamp in the center-sheet, lower margi...

Paris: Cadart & Luquet, c1870. Etching with engraving on Chine-collé mounted to wove paper, 14 1/4 x 9 5/8 inches (360 x 244 mm) full margins. In good condition with some marginal w...

Etching on watermarked Aqua-Fortistes cream laid paper, 7 x 12 7/8 inches (177 x 327 mm), full margins. Condition issues include minor uniform toning (worse at the sheet edges), hand...

Paris: Cadart, 1865. Etching on buff wove paper, 3 1/2 x 7 inches (88 x 177 mm), full margins. In good condition with some light toning and several minor spots of light discoloratio...

A fine and early state impression from an almost unparralled 19th century Parisian collection curated by Loys Delteil. Etching, drypoint, and roulette on buff laid Japon paper, 5 7/16 x 9 13/16 inches (137 × 249 mm) full margins. In very good condition with light and unobtrusive scattered foxing. Some pencil inscriptions in the margins, recto, as well as the Alfred Beurdeley collection stamp (Lugt 421) in black ink in the lower left margin on the recto. There are some light scattered inscriptions in pencil on the verso, as well as a numerical stamp in blue ink, which we believe is the lot number from part III of a well-known series of sales of Beurdeley's collection organized by Loys Delteil. This portion of the sale of Beurdeley's massive collection focused on Modern Prints, and took place on May 19 – 20, 1920, in Paris. In regard to the content of the sale, Fritz Lugt states "Meryon's work included all the beautiful pieces about Paris." A rich and tonal impression. [Delteil & Wright 9; Schneiderman 12]. A note on the provenance: Alfred Beurdeley (1847-1919) was the son of one of the first antique dealers in Paris...