Lithograph on velin d'Arches paper. Paper Size: 12.81 x 9.81 inches. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Condition: Very good/excellent, consistent with age. Notes: From the album, Souvenirs et Portraits d'Artistes, 1972. Published by Editions A. C. Mazo et Cie., Paris, in collaboration with Leon Amiel, editeurs, New York; printed by Mourlot Freres, Paris, April 5, 1972. Excerpted from the album (translated from French), This album is the album of friendship, and I want to thank all the artists who wanted to participate. Some lithographs presented here, and whose authors have left us for too long, were made at my request for an album "Adieu a la rue de Chabrol" that I intended to publish ten years ago. So it was at this time that I was able to get the lithos of Braque, Cocteau, Derain, Giacometti and Villon. Mrs. Duthuit-Matisse and her brothers authorized me to print the composition of Henri Matisse, an unused original lithograph of the album by Teriade "La Religieuse portugaise". I am happy to have brought together so many works by contemporary artists, it is a great honor for me and I am infinitely grateful to them. Finished printing in Paris on April 5, 1972, this album was printed on velin d'Arches, in DCCC numbered examples. In addition, a number of copies were printed for artists, friends and collaborators of this album. The original lithographs were printed by Mourlot, and the typography is from Fequet and Baudier. Alain A.C. Mazo, Paris, and Leon Amiel, New York, publishers. JACQUES VILLON (1875-1963), also known as Gaston Duchamp, was a French Cubist and abstract painter, printmaker, and the eldest brother of Marcel Duchamp. Among Villon's greatest achievements as a printmaker was his creation of a purely graphic language for cubism - an accomplishment that no other printmaker, including his fellow cubists Pablo Picasso or Georges Braque, could claim. After studying law he settled in Paris in 1894, where he worked in Cormon's studio and earned his living as a draughtsman. During this period he contributed to the magazines Le Chat noir, Gil Blas, Lassiette au Beurre and Le Courrier franqais. In 1904 he became a founder member of the Salon d'Automne, in which he regularly exhibited. In 1912 he helped to organize the Section d'Or exhibition, and in 1913 took part in the International Exhibition of Modern Art (the Armory Show) in New York, at which he sold nine pictures. Between 1921 and 1930 he produced thirty-four prints for Architectures. In 1937 he won an award for painting and graphic art at the International Exhibition of Art in Paris. In 1940-1 he was in Bernay with Mme Andre Mare. In 1944 he became friendly with Louis Carre and exhibited in his gallery. In 1949 he won the Grand Prix for graphic art in Lugano, and in 1950 took part in the Twenty fifth Biennale in Venice, and won the Carnegie Prize in Pittsburgh. In 1954 he was made Commandeur de la Legion d' Honneur and Commandeur des Arts et Lettres. In 1956 he won the Grand Prix for painting at the Twenty-eighth Biennale in Venice and in 1958 the Grand Prix at the International Exhibition in Brussels. In 1961 he was made an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Institute of Arts and Letters in the United States. During his early period, when he worked primarily as a draughtsman and etcher, Villon was influenced by Steinlen and Toulouse-Lautrec. In 1906 he became more interested in painting, and during the next five years took his lead from Degas and the Fauves. Then, in 1911, he embraced Analytical Cubism, which satisfied his need for order and discipline. Subsequently, he tried to develop a new style of painting based on mathematical proportions corresponding to the golden section. Later, between 1919 and 1929, he painted abstracts, in which he sought to represent the essence of objects by means of signs and not properties. During this period he restricted his palette to greys and browns. In 1930 he began to use colours from the prismatic sequence of tones. After this abstract phase Villon reverted, in 1933, to natural forms and pure colours. In c. 1950 he stopped painting landscapes and figure compositions, and evolved a new and carefully thought-out form of abstract painting, for which he used cool colours.In May 2004, an Jacques Villon, L'Acrobate, sold at Sotheby's for $1,296,000 USD, setting a world record for the artist.

Very good/excellent, consistent with age