Original Georges Braque Poster L'Atelier 1984 - Mourlot

Artist Georges Braque Year 1984 Exhibition L'Atelier Mourlot — 50 Years of Lithography, Seibu Department Stores, Tokyo Printer Mourlot Frères, Paris — reproduced by Henri Deschamps Size 51 × 72 cm (20.25 × 28.5 in) Type Original vintage lithographic exhibition poster Condition A — Excellent This is an original lithographic poster printed in 1984 for L'Atelier Mourlot — the landmark exhibition organised in Tokyo by the Seibu Department Stores to celebrate fifty years of fine art lithography at the Mourlot studio. Faithfully reproduced by Henri Deschamps, Mourlot's most accomplished master printer, the poster features one of Braque's celebrated bird compositions — a majestic bird soaring at dawn, crossing a cloud, rendered in the luminous, near-abstract palette of his late career. Georges Braque (1882–1963), co-founder of Cubism alongside Picasso and one of the most revered painters of the 20th century, devoted the final decade of his career almost exclusively to the theme of birds in flight. The origin of this obsession can be traced to the summer of 1955, when Braque visited a bird sanctuary in the Camargue — an experience that transformed his relationship with the motif he had long favoured, deepening it into something philosophical. When he was commissioned to paint one of the ceilings of the Louvre in 1952, he chose birds — a recognition by the French state that his birds had become the signature of a vision. For Braque, the bird was the soul in motion: graceful, symmetrical, free from the weight of the world below. Braque's collaboration with Mourlot Frères produced thirteen original posters across a sustained partnership — each one a rare and documented object in its own right. Henri Deschamps, who reproduced this composition for the 1984 Tokyo exhibition, was the craftsman who had worked most closely with the great masters of the École de Paris, translating their line and colour into print with a fidelity that artists trusted absolutely. This example is in excellent condition — grade A — and is presented unframed, ready for the wall it deserves. A serene and distinguished piece — Braque's most iconic motif, at its most luminous, printed by the atelier that celebrated his legacy on the world stage.