The year was 1897 and Camille Pisarro, in Paris, wrote to his son, Lucien, in London, that “No one pays any attention nowadays to anything but prints; it’s a rage, the young generation produces nothing else.” Printmaking, which had until the mid-nineteenth century served chiefly as a mechanism for reproducing imagery, had become an intensely popular form of artistic expression. In 1862,  35 years before Camille Pisarro wrote to his son about the rage for prints, a band of artists that included Edouard Manet, James McNeill Whistler, Albert Besnard, and Henri Fantin-Latour established the “Société des aquafortistes,” which would go on to play a major role in the rise in interest in etching in France and also in the United States and other parts of Europe. Neither school nor academy, the Société embodied a spirit of independence; they organized their own shows of etchings (which were not accepted by juries of the official art institutions), and garnered the support of many wealthy collectors. A few decades later, in 1890, another group of rebellious artists calling themselves Les Nabis (this group counted among its members Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, Maurice Denis, and Henri-Gabriel Ibels) bonded over a common goal of integrating art and daily, modern life; they, too, embraced printmaking among a wide variety of art forms.

Examples of these prints from this time period – etchings, woodcuts, lithographs, zincographs, and more – are gathered, and their history and interrelationships illuminated, in the book Printmaking in Paris: The Rage for Prints at the Fin de Siècle by Fleur Roos Rosa de Carvalho and Marije Vellekoop, just reissued in a handsome hardcover edition by Mercatorfonds.  The works in the book, culled from the world-class prints collection at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, include limited-edition prints as well as artists books and mass-produced posters, programs, and flyers. They are displayed rarely because of their fragility.  Thanks to print media, the book provides a way to share images of the works on paper. Thanks to digital media, we are happy to share a brief slideshow of a selection of these images with you today.

 

 

Jean-Emile Laboureur Wood block for The Laudry (Le linge), 1907 25 x 14.8 cm © Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

 

Odilon RedonBéatrice, from L’Album d’estampes originales de la Galerie Vollard, 1897 Colour lithograph,35.7 x 31.5 / 33.2 x 29.2 cm© Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

 

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec Seated clowness, Miss Cha-u-Kao (La clownesse assise, Mademoiselle Cha-u-Kao), first print of the series Elles, 1896Colour lithograph52.9 x 40.5 / 52.9 x 40.5© Van Gogh Foundation

 

Henri Rivière Celebration on the Seine, 14 July (Fête sur la Seine, le 14 Juillet), twelfth print of the series Les trentes-six vues de la Tour Eiffel, 1902 Colour litograph 28.5 x 22.6 / 21 x 17 cm © Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

 

Henri-Gabriel Ibels Sheet music for Coeur meurtri by René Esse (lyrics) and Léopold Gangloff (music), 1892 Lithograph in black ink, with stencilled colour, published by Georges Ondet 27.5 x 17.4 / 27.5 x 34.9 cm © Van Gogh Foundation

 

József Rippl-Rónai Artist’s book Les vierges by Georges Rodenbach, published by Samuel Bing, 1895 Three colour lithograph and a cover 25.3 x 17.5 cm © Van Gogh Foundation

 

Henri Toulouse-LautrecPoster advertising the cabaret Le Divan Japonais, 1893Colour lithograph80.6 x 62.1 / 80.3 x 59.9 cm© Van Gogh Foundation

 

Henri-Gabriel IbelsCollector’s edition of the theatre programme for les Les Fossiles from the series Les Programmes du Théâtre Libre, 1892Colour lithograph29.4 x 40.3 / 22.9 x 28 cm© Van Gogh Foundation

 

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec Artist’s book Yvette Guilbert, with text by Gustave Geffroy, 1894 16 lithographs and a cover in olive green, published by André Marty 40.7 x 39.2 cm © Van Gogh Foundation

 

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec Artist’s book Yvette Guilbert, with text by Gustave Geffroy, 1894 16 lithographs and a cover in olive green, published by André Marty 40.7 x 39.2 cm © Van Gogh Foundation

 

Pierre Bonnard Artist’s book Parallèlement, text by Paul Verlaine, 1900 190 lithographs in pink and nine woodcuts in black, executed by Tony Beltrand, published by Ambroise Vollard 30 x 24.7 cm © Pictoright 2013

 

Félix Vallotton Artist’s book Bauderies parisiennes – les Rassemblements, physiologies de la rue, with a foreword by Octave Uzanne and texts by various authors, 1896 30 photomechanically reproduced illustrations in black and white, published by Henri Floury 24.1 x 18 cm © Van Gogh Museum

 

Pierre Bonnard Artist’s book Petit solfège illustré by Claude Terrasse, 1893 32 photomechanically reproduced colour lithographs, published by Librairies-Imprimeries Réunies, Ancienne Maison Quantin 21.3 x 28.6 cm © Pictoright 2013