New Pamono Manuel Robbe, L’Eclatante from Les Maîtres de L’Affiche, 1898, Original Lithograph

Manuel Robbe (1872 – 1936)

L’Eclatante

Year of ideation: 1895
Year of printing: 1898
Lithograph on wove paper
Publisher: Chaix

Signed in the plate, lower right

from the famous collection “Les Maîtres de l’Affiche”
Issue # 36, Plate #143, November 1898

Bottom left:
Les Maîtres de l’Affiche PL. 143
Imprimerie Chaix
(Encres Lorilleux & Cie.)

Bottom right, blind stamp of publisher / edition

Excellent Condition

Literature:
“The Complete Masters of the Poster”, edited by Stanley Appelbaum, Dover, New York, 1990, p. 143
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About the collection “Les Maîtres de l’Affiche”

Les Maîtres de l’Affiche (The Masters of the Poster) is one of the most prestigious and influential art publications in history Its 256 color plates have preserved for each succeeding generation a wide-ranging selection of outstanding posters from the turn of the century, when that popular art form had reached its first peak.

The earliest printed posters were chiefly typographic, with relatively few illustrated examples. But in the second half of the nineteenth century, when all types of commercial products, including printed matter, were being aesthetically upgraded, largely thanks to various arts-and-crafts movements, serious artists such as Manet began to see new possibilities in the poster medium. It was especially Jules Chéret (1836-1932) whose unique combination of artistic, technical and entrepreneurial talents was to pave the way for a true poster industry. After Chéret opened his own print shop in Paris in 1866, his work continued to inspire numerous emulators in Europe and America. from 1881 on, his shop operated as a branch of the large Chaix firm (Imprimerie Chaix)

By the 1890s the streets of every great metropolis were enlivened by large, colourful posters.
This Chaix publication, Les Maîtres de l’Affiche, was issued as separate numbered sheets measuring 40 x 29 cm. Every month for 60 months, from December 1895 through November 1900, subscribers received a wrapper containing four consecutively numbered poster. On 16 occasions the monthly wrapper also contained a bonus plate, a specially created art lithograph. Jules Chéret, artistic director of Chaix and father of the modern poster, emerged with the lion’s share of the plates, one Chéret being included in each monthly issue of four, and seven of the 16 unnumbered bonus plates.

Of the 97 artists represented in Les Maîtres de l’Affiche, some were preeminent painters and printmakers at various stages of their careers: Toulouse-Lautrec, Denis, Bonnard, Vallotton, Puvis de Chavannes. Others were famous illustrators and cartoonists of the period, still well known to art collectors and bibliophiles. Forain, Caran d’Ache, Ibels, Willette, Boutet de Monvel, Léandre. But there were also all those whose names say “poster,” the conquering pioneers of the new medium. Chéret himself, Mucha, Steinlen, the Beggarstaffs, Grasset, Penfield, Parrish, Bradley, Hardy The list could go on and on.
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About the Artist

Manuel Robbe was born on 16 December 1872 in the 19th arrondissement of Paris. He attended the Lycée Condorcet, where he became friends with Gaston de Pawlowski, and then transferred to the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, one of the best grammar schools in France. He then became a pupil at the Académie Julian, where he came into contact with many famous personalities, before transferring to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. There he learnt the finer points of etching and aquatint etching from the master etcher Eugène Delâtre. He exhibited regularly at the salons of the Société des Artistes Français and was awarded a bronze medal at the 1900 World Exhibition for his contribution to printmaking.

Robbe quickly became a successful etcher, specialising in the aquatint technique. He exhibited regularly at the salons of the Société des artistes français; the Parisian dealers Edmond Sagot, Georges Petit and Pierrefort published and distributed his etchings. In 1895, his poster for the paraffin lamp L’Éclatante appeared in the magazine Les Maîtres de l’affiche (1895-1900), edited by Jules Chéret. An etching entitled Menuet d’automne was published in L’Estampe moderne (1897).

At the 1900 Universal Exhibition, he received a bronze medal for an etching entitled L’été. His drawings were published in Cocorico (1898-1900) and Le Frou-frou (1901-1902). Between 1905 and 1907, the Galerie Georges Petit exhibited his works as part of the annual Salon of the Société de la gravure originale en couleurs. Over the course of his artistic career, Manuel Robbe created numerous aquatint etchings, drypoint etchings and several advertising posters, as well as works in other techniques (oil paintings, watercolours and pastels).
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Important:

. The listing is for the original lithograph.
. The cover of the issue by Jules Chéret is shown for reference.