If a trip to the East Coast isn’t on your upcoming agenda, you can also stop by Galerie Michael for a Degas fix.  From rare etchings to works on paper, our staff is available to walk you through our collection of Degas.  Click here for a closer look at the Galerie Michael’s Degas collection:  http://galeriemichael.com/artists/degas-edgar/

Edgar Degas French, 1894 pastel on joined paper mounted on board (Portland Museum of Art)

Mary Cassatt at the Louvre, in the Antiques Gallery, Edgar DEGAS, Etching and aquatint on cream wove paper, #911473 (Galerie Michael)

Picasso bought Fort’s printing press when the printmaker retired, a testament to their friendship as well as Picasso’s enjoyment of the process in the printmaker’s atelier.

Learn more about Edmond Desjobert at our exhibition PICASSO – Unique Proofs from His Ateliers at Galerie Michael, May 5 – June 5, 2012.

Deux Femmes Nues II (Two Female Nudes II), 1930 Etching on strong wove paper with margins. Signed lower margin and numbered “123 - 125”.

Learn more about Edmond Desjobert at our exhibition PICASSO – Unique Proofs from His Ateliers at Galerie Michael, May 5 – June 5, 2012.

Le peintre et son modèle (The Painter and His Model),1929-1930 Lithograph on BFK Rives velin with full margins. An artist’s proof outside the numbered edition of

Learn more about Jacques Frelaut at our exhibition PICASSO – Unique Proofs from His Ateliers at Galerie Michael, May 5 – June 5, 2012.

Sabartes avec deux femmes, (Sabartes with Two Women) c.1959 Drypoint on Rives wove paper.

Centaure et homme barbu (Centaur with Bearded Man), 1961 Sugar-lift aquatint in color on Arches wove paper.

Sculpture. Tête de Marie-Therese, (Sculpture. Head of Marie-Therese) 1934 Etching and drypoint on Richard de Bas laid paper.

The main attribute to Professor Ernst van de Wetering’s claim that it is indeed a work of Rembrandt is the use of light in the painting.  Through x-ray technology, it was possible to see various ways in which the light was re-worked before the final version of the painting.  This is a historical characteristic of Rembrandt’s creative process.  Additionally, Professor Wetering states that “the signature on the painting was microscopically and chemically studied, suggesting that the painter added his signature at the same time as the paint of the painting itself.”

On the opposing side, curator Giltaij counters the claim saying that Rembrandt would never paint over a panel that had previously been used for painting. He also states that the inaccuracies in the details of Tobit and Anna are very un-Rembrandt including a fire burning next to an open window and the lack of precision in the painting of the hands of the subjects in the painting.

While the experts are at odds about the original authorship of this painting, research over its origin continues in search of a more definitive decision.

Tobit and Anna, 1659, possibly by Rembrandt

Of particular fascination to Picasso was the process of the Linoleum cut.  Holding true to his methodology of adapting a chosen medium to his own language and individual approach, Picasso took this most basic printing method (an art form so simplistic that it is often a project approached by pre-schoolers) to such extremes that it challenged his printers to what was considered the limits of their skills as craftsmen.

Picasso’s real interest in the linocut began in 1951 when he was seventy years old, and lasted for most of twenty years in his work.  During this period, Picasso not only makes reference to his own previous work, but also characteristically develops images of other artists (Rembrandt, El Greco, Cranch, and Manet).  Picasso’s invention in 1959 of the one-block technique of linocut printing enabled him to achieve brilliantly colored and richly textured works on paper.  Like woodblock printing the linoleum is cut away from the flat surface of the block except those areas that, when inked and printed, articulate the components of the composition.  Softer, more supple and lighter in weight than wood, linoleum can be cut, gouged, and slashed with greater speed and much less effort than wood.  This material and process suited Picasso’s temperament well: by taking something away he was also creating, a contradiction the artist reveled in.  The linocut images present to the buyer a rare opportunity to own a color work by this 20th century master.

Danse nocturne avec un Hibou, Pablo PICASSO, 1959, Color linocut, 'Epreuve d'essai' of the final state but printed in a different color combination than the definitive edition. This impression is in 'blanc crème' over black. #911208

Crommelynck began his relationships with many of the preeminent modern artists there, such as Miró, Léger and Matisse. He left the atelier in 1955, having already established himself as a creative and technically meticulous printer. Along with his brothers, he opened his atelier in Paris, and continued to work with Picasso. In fact, when the artist moved to Mougins, Aldo and Piero set up a printing workshop nearby to accomodate his work, and would print all of Picasso’s etchings until the end of the artist’s life in 1973.

Learn more about Aldo Crommelynck at our exhibition PICASSO – Unique Proofs from His Ateliers at Galerie Michael, May 5 – June 5, 2012.

Untitled (From 347 Suite), 1968 Sugar-lift aquatint on Rives BFK wove paper.

Sable Mouvant: Peintre et Modèle Accoudé (Quicksand: Painter and Leaning Model), 1964, Aquatint and drypoint on Japon paper.

Sable Mouvant: Deux Femmes au Miroir (Quicksand: Two Women at the Mirror), 1965 Aquatint, etching and drypoint on Japon ancien.

Sable Mouvant: Peintre Debout à son Chevalet, avec un Modèle (Quicksand: Standing Painter at his Easel, with a Model), 1964 Aquatint on Japon paper.

Belle jeune femme à sa toilette (Beautiful Young Girl at Her Vanity), 1971 Etching on wove paper. Plate 144 from Series 156.

Sur le Scene: Viellard Barbu S’Appretant a Poignarder une Femme Dans Son Lit, 1966 Etching and aquatint on Rives.

Le Peintre et son Modèle (from Dans l’Atelier), (The Painter and His Model, from In the Atelier),

Given the aura attached to masters such as Picasso, the sub-market in original plates is already heating up, and it can be argued that, in exhibition and selling these objects, Galerie Michael is out ahead of the curve. It should be noted that not all such objects are viable as integral artworks; lithographic stones, for instance, are unwieldy things in and of themselves, and many stones and plates and other sources of impression bear only incomplete versions of the final images, having been used in combination with other sources to produce those impressions.

Learn more about Roger Lacouriere at our exhibition PICASSO – Unique Proofs from His Ateliers at Galerie Michael, May 5 – June 5, 2012.

Femmes d’Algers, D’Aprés Delacroix. VIII (Algerian Women, After Delacroix), 1955 Sugarlift aquatint on Rives wove paper

En la Taberna (In the Tavern), 1934 Etching on Richard de bas Auvergne paper. Stamped signature lower right