Composition 1949 'L 06' by Hans Hartung, 1904-1989

Hans Hartung, 1904-1989
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Composition 1949 'L 06'

Original lithograph in colours. 1949. Signed in pencil with the artist's monogram and dated 49. Numbered in pencil (49) from the edition of 100. Issued by Edizioni del Milione, Milan 1949. Very rare.
Ref:chmucking - Hartung Graphic Work no 62

Excellent impression with very fresh colours. On light cream wove paper, top mounted as issued onto a pale wove backing sheet with the name of the artist. Generally excellent condition; the slightest sign of a mount mark. Printed almost to the full sheet size, as issued. Full sheet: 13 7/8 x 9 1/4ins. (350x235mm).

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An extremely rare and important colour lithograph from the very earliest period of Hartung's graphic work. Impressions of this lithograph, drawn for a portfolio of avant-garde abstract art issued in Italy immediately after the War, virtually never appear on the market.

Hans Hartung was one of the single most important painters in the Paris abstract movement in the years after the War. Born in Germany he had first visited Paris from 1927 to 1931, returning there to settle in 1939 and to marry the daughter of the Spanish sculptor Gonzales. On the outbreak of war he joined the Legion and after the war became a French citizen. He had begun to develop his ideas of free brushed form linked to areas of colour in the period just before the war but it was to come to a first full maturity immediately that he took up painting again in 1945. The unique quality in his art is the balance between a graphic/calligraphic use of brushed line and subdued colour adding visual depth.

Hartung's interest in line, created in painting by the open brush bristles, quickly led him to the use of printmaking media. The lithograph above is one of his very first works to use lithography and the qualities of the lithographic chalk to create the same linear effects that he wanted in his paintings. It marks a very significant moment in his art, dating from just after he started to work again after the war.