122 - Édouard Manet (1832–1883)

Édouard Manet (1832–1883) The Cats. 1868. Etching and aquatint. 220 x 175 [390 x 245 mm]. Guérin 52; Fisher 51. A very fine print on antique ivory-colored laid paper; the slight grain of the aquatint is faintly visible beneath the cat on the chair. A fine, diagonal printing crease runs across the upper-left corner of the copper plate. A small (original) missing section in the lower-right corner. All margins untrimmed. AABM stamp (Lugt 3075). "Between Manet’s two commissions for Champfleury’s *Les Chats* came a simple caprice that reflects Manet’s inherent joy with cats—their behavior and sinuous movements. [...] The design is based on Manet’s numerous sketches of cats in his studio and elsewhere, including a brush-and-ink drawing of a cat under a chair [...] Manet was undoubtedly influenced by prints from Hokusai’s *Manga*, specifically an entire page devoted to cats in various positions [...] This etching was never published during Manet’s lifetime but appears in all three posthumous editions. (Jay McKean Fisher, *The Prints of Edouard Manet*, Washington, D.C., International Exhibitions Foundation, 1985, p. 89). Our proof is possibly (like the one featured in the exhibition "The Prints of Edouard Manet," which was held in various American museums in 1985–1986) a trial print predating the run produced for Dumont on old blue-tinted laid paper in 1894. On our proof, as on the exhibition proof, the aquatint grain beneath the cat by the chair is still perceptible: “This light aquatint is slightly stronger in this impression than it appears in the posthumous printings. " (Op. cit., p. 90). Henri Beraldi’s enthusiasm is rarely expressed so clearly: “Very rare!!! (Are you listening, collectors? Very rare!!!) And there are two states!!!” (Henri Beraldi, Guide de l’Amateur d’estampes modernes, vol. III, Bracquemond, Paris, L. Conquet, 1885, p. 71).