<b>PREMIER AMOUR </b> / Paul Jacoulet1937<b>SOLD</b></em>

Details

Jacoulet is known to have employed elaborate and experimental printing techniques and materials. Some of his most complicated designs required fifty to seventy printing stages; in some cases, well over one hundred were utilized. The artist was involved in every facet of production and self-published the majority of his body of work, selling them by way of subscription. To maintain commercial viability, Jacoulet would only print enough to fill existing subscription orders and often printed far less than the proposed edition number would suggest.

Premier Amour is among the artist’s most desirable designs. The print features a beautiful woman reclining in a soft pinkish-red background adorned with silver mica. The woman is dressed in her native clothing that features a grass skirt with flowers and leaves as adornments. Jacoulet presents his subject as a half-nude and highlights a subtle tan and gold pigmentation throughout her body with a touch of rouge on the woman’s cheeks.

Connoisseur's Note

Premier Amour is among those designs Jacoulet produced that amazed his audiences. The poetics of the design in concert with expertly applied printing techniques resulted in one of the most compelling nudes in 20th-century Japanese woodblock prints. This impression is part of the Kanji edition, numbered 143/150 on the verso, along with a hand-applied paper label with the title on the front bottom margin making it among the earliest and most desirable versions available.