The seminar was held as part of the wider research project into print series by the four Nabi artists by Fleur Roos Rosa de Carvalho, Curator of Prints and Drawings. The Van Gogh Museum recently received a generous grant to this end from the Getty Foundation’s Paper Project.
Proof to Perfection
The immediate prompt for the seminar was the exhibition From Proof to Perfection: Edouard Vuillard Paysages et intérieurs, held in the museum’s Print Room between 4 October 2019 and 8 January 2020.
The exhibition brought together around ten drawings and thirty-five trial proofs with the definitive series of thirteen colour lithographs, which offered the invited Dutch and international experts an exceptional viewing opportunity. They were able to study and compare the various sheets at close quarters, heightening their knowledge of the artistic process from design to final print. At the same time, the interaction between artist and printer was highlighted.
Presentations on Vuillard, Clot, Bonnard, Denis and Roussel
Three presentations were given during the morning session:
- Mathias Chivot, researcher at the Archives Vuillard, discussed the significance of the series within Vuillard’s oeuvre;
- PhD researcher Natalia Lauricella gave a paper on the printer Auguste Clot as a colour lithographer;
- Senior Curator Fleur Roos Rosa de Carvalho of the Van Gogh Museum presented her recently launched research project into the four print series that the Nabi artists Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Ker-Xavier Roussel and Edouard Vuillard created for the publisher Ambroise Vollard.
Fleur’s study sets out to map the artistic process in detail from design and trial proof to the final edition of these prints. She emphasized that the success of her research will depend entirely on the active involvement of those present, which will allow a widespread network to be built up and as many impressions as possible to be traced.
Interactive case study
An interactive approach was adopted in the afternoon session, with the prints studied and discussed in small groups. Observations and questions were then presented in plenary. The composition of the groups was mixed: in addition to art historians specializing in the Nabis, paper restorers were involved along with a lithographer, an art market expert, a gallery owner and several collectors. This allowed an immense amount of knowledge to be generated in a single day, which will prove invaluable in the years ahead as the research is developed further.
One significant fact to emerge was that too little attention has been paid so far to the essential technical aspect of the production of colour lithographs. Knowledge of the drawing or transfer of a design onto the stone, the mixing of colours, and printing with a hand press will be indispensable to a better understanding of these masterpieces of printmaking. Bringing the works together in the exhibition placed individual items within their wider context, enabling the artistic process to be reconstructed.
Future exhibitions
Following this first, highly successful expert meeting, the ambition is now to organize a similar exhibition devoted to Maurice Denis in the years ahead.