Narcisse Diaz de la Peña’s lithograph, “Woman with Two Lovers and a Matchmaker”, 1844

Narcisse Diaz de la Peña (aka Narcisse Virgile Diaz de la Peña; Narcisse Virgile Diaz) (1807–1876)

“Woman with Two Lovers and a Matchmaker” (aka “Vrouw met twee minnaars en een koppelaarster”; “Les Fous Amoureux”), 1844, published in Paris by Leon Curmer (aka Henri-Leon Curmer) (1801–1870) in “Les Beaux-Arts”, vol. 3, 1844, and printed by Victor Jacques Bertauts (fl.1830s–1880).

Lithograph printed in black on warm gey chine collé on wove paper with the publisher’s blindstamp at lower right and backed with a support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 30.4 x 22.7 cm; (image borderline) 20.2 x 15.2 cm.

Signed in the stone within the image borderline: (lower left corner) “N. Diaz”.

Lettered in the stone above the image borderline: (centre); “DIAZ”.

Lettered in the stone below the image borderline: (left) “Diaz lith.”; (centre) “Les fous amoureux.”; (right) “Imp. Betauts.”

Blindstamped below the image borderline: (right) “L. CURMER/49/rue Richelieu” (not in Lugt).

IFF 2 (Département des Estampes 1930–, “Inventaire du Fonds Français après 1800”, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, vol., 6, p. 568, cat. no. 2); Beraldi [unnumbered] (Henri Béraldi 1889, “Les Graveurs du XIXe Siècle: Guide de l'Amateur d'Estampes Modernes”, vol. 5, Paris, Conquet, p. 225).

The British Museum offers the following description of this print: “In the foreground, in a wooded scene, a man and woman seated, the man kissing her hand while she looks towards another figure (the same man?) just beyond, whose outstretched arm is restrained by an older woman wearing a cowl who holds a bleeding stump in her free hand./ Lithograph” (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1886-1012-241).

See also the description of this print offered by the Rijksmuseum: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.105489.

Condition: a strong and well-printed impression in excellent condition with no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, stains or foxing and laid onto a support of archival (millennium quality) washi paper.

I am selling this romantic lithograph showing a a moonlight tryst between two love-smitten young men and a young woman interrupted by a matchmaker who restrains the ardent advance of one of the men with her right hand while holding what the British Museum tells me is “a bleeding stump in her free hand” (see BM inv. no. 1886,1012.241)—a graphic warning that Goya would no doubt have loved if this detail were more easily seen—for AU$252 in total (currently US$179.45/EUR170.37/GBP143.09 at the time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries.

If you are interested in purchasing this wonderfully inventive lithograph of romance and symbolism by an artist closely connected to the Barbizon School—note that scene may well be set in the forest of Fontainebleau and the fractured glimpse of what is happening in the moonlight is arguably a step towards the Impressionists' fascination with effects of light—please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.