Les Pieds Nickelés. Stiff Feet - a colloquial phrase for 'Doing Nothing' by Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec, 1864-1901

Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec, 1864-1901
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Les Pieds Nickelés. Stiff Feet - a colloquial phrase for 'Doing Nothing'

Original lithograph in black ink in two parts. 1895.
Signed with the monogram in the stone. From the edition with the text issued as the wrapper for the text of the play by Tristan Bernard. Published by Ollendorf, Paris, 1895.

Very Rare Indeed.

Ref: Wittrock - T-Lautrec Prints 95; Deteil 128; Adriani 128.
Note: Sold complete with the text of the play.

Very fine strong impression with some damage (now restored) along the fold where originally wrapped around the text and a little surface rubbing as might be expected for such a work.

Printed to the full sheet size, as issued. Sheet 7 1/2 x 11 3/8ins (195x290mm).

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As well as Song Sheets (see Nos. 37 and 38 in this catalogue) designs for wrappers for the texts of plays provided Lautrec with some of his earliest commissions for lithographs. They were also, like the Song Sheets, instrumental in establishing his reputation as a lithographer for the texts of the popular plays had a very wide circulation. Unlike earlier periods when such designs had been merely reproductive those drawn by Lautrec were printed directly from the stones on which he had drawn as true original lithographs.

With their marvellous characterization and inventive design Lautrec's Theatre Covers include some of his most adventurous lithography. However, due to the very ephemeral nature of these wrappers, examples of such works have become extremely of such works have become extremely rare nowadays.

Les Pieds Nickelés - a colloquial expression meaning 'Hanging About Doing Nothing' - was one of Lautrec's earliest commissions for a Theatre Cover. The play was a comedy by Tristan Bernards first performed in March 1895. Lautrec's design is a wonderful example of his witty drawing. It also includes two intriguing figures - the languid figure in the foreground very strongly suggests Oscar Wilde (whom Lautrec drew in 1896 for a Theatre programme) and the hunched figure on the left may well be a tongue-in-cheek Self-Portrait.

Impressions of this Theatre Cover are extremely rare, to the extent that the small amount of damage on the old fold-line of this cover seems of little importance.