Un groupe de peintres chez Le Barc de Bouteville - Lot 38

Un groupe de peintres chez Le Barc de Bouteville First Exhibition of the Nabis. Galerie Le Barc de Bouteville, Paris, 1893. Suite of eight lithographed leaves from the exhibition held from October 25 to November 5. First edition (24.8 x 14.5 cm). Openwork protective box revealing the original compositions. Extremely rare complete set of eight catalog lithographs from the very first exhibition to bring together exclusively the Nabis painters: Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Henri-Gabriel Ibels, Marc Mouclier, Paul Ranson, Paul Sérusier, Félix Vallotton and Édouard Vuillard. A complete copy, in perfect condition, of the eight very fragile lithographs, each printed in an edition of some fifty copies, and which, lacking a title page and receipt, has been systematically dispersed. It is missing from the Bibliothèque nationale de France (the plates, printed on buff vellum, are preserved in a black percaline box by Alidor Goy). All the leaves have lithographic illustrations, respectively by Maurice Denis, Henri-Gabriel Ibels, Marc Mouclier, Paul Ranson, Paul Sérusier, Félix Vallotton and Édouard Vuillard, with the list of works by the corresponding painter also lithographed in each plate. The only exception is Pierre Bonnard, who shares the Vallotton plate with only a list of works, with no lithographic illustration. On the back of the Maurice Denis plate, inked stamp of the Le Barc de Bouteville gallery, where the exhibition was held in 1893. Louis Lebarc (1837-1897) used his wife's name for his gallery, Le Barc de Bouteville, 47, rue Le Peletier. After the Gauguin exhibition at the Café Volpini in 1889, he was the only one to offer a sympathetic venue for new pictorial trends. The 1893 exhibition, the very first to bring together the Nabis painters, was reviewed by Thadée Natanson in La Revue blanche. After his death, Ambroise Vollard took over in 1897, followed by Durand-Ruel in 1899. Provenance: Private collection.