Jean-Emile Laboureur
Le Tir Forain
1920

Name: Le Tir Forain
Brand: Jean-Emile Laboureur
Price: 14000 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Le Tir Forain, engraving, 1920-21, signed in pencil lower left, titled lower left, and numbered 11//85 lower right, also annotated “imp.” [also with the monogram and date 1920 in the plate upper right]. Reference: Godefroy, Laboureur 191. Fourth state (of 4), total lifetime edition of 108 including all states. Posthumous impressions were taken in 1988, which are clearly stamped and identified. The plate has been cancelled. In excellent condition, on an ivory wove paper, with full/wide margins, 10 1/2 x 9, the sheet 14 x 11 1/4 inches. A superb, rich impression of this splendid image, printed in an unusual dark brown ink. Le Tir Forain was conceived in sketches and drawings in 1914, and some components of the image can be seen in one of the small woodcuts Laboureur created for a series of scenes depicting the troops in World War I. A major painting on the theme was not completed, and the engraving itself was done in 1920-21; the edition was printed in 1921. Le Tir Forain is one of the most famous of Laboureur’s images, and has been exhibited widely, serving as a theme for art shows and even as a decorative panel for the restaurant Boulestin. Le Tir Forain demonstrates Laboureur’s remarkable adaptation of the cubist idiom; his engraving technique is a perfect way of achieving the angularity and freshness of line that his unique approach requires. The general composition of Le Tir Forain was set out in the first state, which is of great interest in understanding the development of the print, and the intermediate states are of interest as well (and of course represent the plate in its early and more pristine condition). But in this case, the final state – in which the lines of the targets are filled in – is really a culmination of the developmental process; so in the case of Le Tir Forain the definitive fourth state represents the last word on what the artist was aiming at in this, one of his most appealing prints.

Creator:

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943, French)

Creation Year:

1920

Medium:

Engraving

Movement & Style:

Cubist

Period:

1920-1929

Condition:

Gallery Location: