Maxime Maufra (1861-1918) - Lot 206

Maxime Maufra (1861-1918) The Wave. 1894. Etching and aquatint. 535 x 345. Morane 10. Fine proof on ivory vellum, insolated at the opening of the mount, signed in pencil. A small oblique scratch at the left edge of the subject. Various accidents, missing parts and restorations to the edges of the folio. Band of gummed kraft around reverse. Stamp R. T. stamp (recto and verso). This print was included in the following exhibitions: Cent ans d'estampes en Bretagne, Le Faouët, 1998 (reproduced in catalog no. 163); Before and After Gauguin, Atlanta, 2008. "This is Maxime Maufra's most elaborate plate, and also his most famous. It exists in eight states, each darker than the last. [...] If the visual approach is typically Japanese, it is Hokusaï that brings it to mind. An exhibition of Japanese prints was held from April 25 to May 22, 1890 at the École des Beaux-Arts, on the initiative of Samuel Bing, author of Le Japon artistique (1888-1891). It revolutionized the art world, and artists such as Henri Rivière and Henri-Gustave Jossot took up the theme of Hokusaï's Wave in the fourth and sixth volumes of L'Estampe originale, in 1893 and 1894. The synthetic spirit of Maufra's Wave, treated in a few skilfully compartmentalized masses, perfectly illustrates the Pont-Aven artists' desire to grasp the essential." (M. Grivel, ed., Gauguin et l'École de Pont-Aven, exhibition catalog, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, 1989, p. 129).