T. A. Steinlen : Aujourd’hui ! (Today!), 1894 (Kleinmann)

By STEINLEN T.A. (1859-1923)

Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen (1859–1923)

Aujourd’hui ! (Today!), 1894

Original lithograph, coloured au patron (stencil-coloured), deluxe printing published by Édouard Kleinmann, Paris.

Monogrammed “P. P.” (Petit Pierre) in the stone, as issued; not hand-signed. This impression is without the publisher’s blind stamp and without pencil number — outside the numbered and stamped edition of 100 (of which nos. 61–100 were stencil-coloured), presumably a proof aside from the regular numbering.

Dimensions:
Sheet: 45 × 41 cm — 17 ¾ × 16 ⅛ in.
Size of the image: 30.5 × 30.9 cm — 12 × 12 ⅛ in.

Condition: Very fine condition; unframed.

References: Crauzat, 145

A plate from Steinlen’s celebrated series of political lithographs for Le Chambard Socialiste, the anarcho-syndicalist weekly to which he contributed from its first issue in December 1893 until July 1894. To shield himself from prosecution at the height of the anti-anarchist crackdowns, Steinlen signed these biting social satires under the pseudonym Petit Pierre — hence the “P. P.” monogram in the stone. Aujourd’hui ! is the pendant to Demain ! : the labourer, the man and the woman with her child still bend beneath the yoke of the landowner — a yoke the companion plate shows broken. Reproduced in colours on the front page of Le Chambard Socialiste no. 16, 31 March 1894. Alongside the newspaper’s printing, the publisher Édouard Kleinmann issued a deluxe edition of each plate. These Chambard lithographs, in which Steinlen’s compassion for the working poor finds its most militant expression, have been compared to Daumier’s great political prints.

Original period impression of 1894, deluxe stencil-coloured printing published by Éd. Kleinmann.

Price : 150,00 € ( 171.00 USD )