2016
Léger, Fernand
1881 Argentan - 1955 Gif-sur-Yvette.
«Patience - Bannières de Mai» from «Les illuminations».
1948/49. Watercolour over lithograph on strong wove paper teinté. Signed lower right. Inscribed «essai pour la couleur» lower left and signed by Louis Grosclaude, who produced the colouring by means of pochoir (stencils) for the later edition. Verso on the backboard a printed label from the Galerie + Verlag ARAS, Saulgau/Ravensburg typographically inscribed with the work's data.
H 29,2, W 22 cm (image),
H 33, W 25 cm (sheet). Framed.
The complete portfolio consists of a total of 15 lithographs by Fernand Léger, including 13 that are coloured using the pochoir technique, accompanying poems by Arthur Rimbaud. Published by Louis Grosclaude at Editions des Gaules, Lausanne. Lithographs printed by Roth & Sauter, Lausanne. Pochoirs under the direction of Louis Grosclaude.
Before the portfolio was published in 1949 - a total of 395 copies were printed - Louis Grosclaude carried out attempts to add colour through pochoir technique. This work documents this development process Until the end, artist and printer experimented with colour application and techniques, so that in the published copies there are numerous colourings that deviate from each other in opacity, partly with colour application in the form of pochoir and partly by hand. In the case of the present sheet, there are copies with background colouring fragmented into colour zones as well as those with continuous colouring.
Provenance: private collection Lake Constance.
Catalogue raisonné: Saphire 27.

Condition report