Armand Berton (1854–1917)

"Tête de Jeune Femme” [Head of a Young Woman]

Original chine collé lithograph on buff coloured wove paper with wide margins and signed in the plate.

Size: (sheet) 50.4 x 33 cm; (chine collé image) 21.5 x 16.8 cm

Condition: strong chine collé impression with pencil addition to the upper framing edge (suggesting that this is a proof and annotated in pencil by the artist). The sheet has light unevenness arising from the applique process and is slightly dusty with a bumped lower-right corner.

I am selling this delicate and very romantic original lithograph for [deleted] including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this soft, dreamily enigmatic portrait, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

I originally purchased this original lithograph simply because the print looked beautiful and I’ve a soft spot for demure dreamy young women. There is something strangely compelling about this print that goes beyond the charm of the portrayed young lady and it’s all about the strong borderline framing the portrait.

In one sense this frame makes my view of the long haired beauty seem very intimate and constricted. In another sense the curved corners of the frame gives the impression—at least for me—of some sort of psychological weight bearing down on her. There is also a graphic element that is not really a part of the frame but which also plays a role: the pencil additions surrounding the lithograph at the top edge of the chine collé presumably made by the artist in this proof print. These pencil marks give an emphatically eye-catching broken edge to the upper portion of the frame line suggesting—again from a personal viewpoint—the ephemeral spirit of the portrayed subject; a bit like a faded old photograph framed within its crisp border as a negative.