Fernand Léger, La danse, Plate Signed Lithograph

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It sells as a copy - 'As is'

No certificate of authenticity (COA)

You will receive the item from the photos.

The items are purchased from Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland and the United Kingdom various dealers, auctions, sales, antique shops, markets, and art collectors.

I accept return within 14 days

The lithograph will be without a frame

LITHOGRAPHY is a printing process that uses a flat stone or metal plate on which the image areas are worked using a greasy substance so that the ink will adhere to them by, while the non-image areas are made ink-repellent.

A printing process based on the fact that grease and water do not mix. The image is applied to a grained surface (traditionally stone but now usually aluminium) using a greasy medium: such as a special greasy ink – called tusche, crayon, pencils, lacquer, or synthetic materials. Photochemical or transfer processes can also be used. A solution of gum arabic and nitric acid is then applied over the surface, producing water-receptive non-printing areas and grease-receptive image areas. The printing surface is kept wet so that a roller charged with oil-based ink can be rolled over the surface, and ink will only stick to the grease-receptive image area. Paper is then placed against the surface, and the plate is run through a press.

Lithography was invented in the late eighteenth century, initially using Bavarian limestone as the printing surface. Its invention made it possible to print a much wider range of marks and areas of tone than possible with earlier printmaking relief intaglio methods. It also made colour printing easier: areas of different colours can be applied to separate stones and overprinted onto the same sheet.

Offset lithography involves printing the image onto an intermediate surface before the final sheet. The process is ‘offset’ because the plate does not come in direct contact with the paper, which preserves the quality of the plate. With offset lithography, the image is reversed twice and appears on the final sheet the same way round as on the stone or plate.

ETCHING is a printmaking technique that uses chemical action to produce incised lines in a metal printing plate which then hold the applied ink and form the image

The plate, traditionally copper but now usually zinc, is prepared with an acid-resistant ground. Lines are drawn through the ground, exposing the metal. The plate is then immersed in acid, and the exposed metal is ‘bitten’, producing incised lines. Stronger acid and longer exposure produce more deeply bitten lines. The resist is removed, and ink applied to the sunken lines but wiped from the surface. The plate is then placed against the paper and passed through a printing press with great pressure to transfer the ink from the recessed lines. Sometimes ink may be left on the plate surface to provide a background tone.

Etching was used for decorating metal from the fourteenth century but was probably not used for printmaking much before the early sixteenth century. Since then many etching techniques have been developed, which are often used in conjunction with each other: soft-ground etching uses a non-drying resist or ground, to produce softer lines; spit bite involves painting or splashing acid onto the plate; open bite in which areas of the plate are exposed to acid with no resistance; photo-etching (also called photogravure or heliogravure) is produced by coating the printing plate with a light-sensitive acid-resist ground and then exposing this to light to reproduce a photographic image. Foul biting results from accidental or unintentional erosion of the acid resist.

Like engraving, etching is an intaglio technique. Intaglio refers to all printing and printmaking techniques that involve making indents or incisions into a plate or print surface which hold the ink when ink is applied to the surface and then wiped clean.

Disclaimer - Our prints/original art are purchased from various dealers, auctions, sales, antique shops, markets, and art collectors and are sold by us as such. However, in the unlikely event that you do not like the article, we will make an immediate and full refund, without hesitation, if the item is returned to us in the same condition it was received, with no damage, marks or folds, within 14 days of receipt.

Joseph Fernand Henri Léger

Fernand Léger was a French painter who made a unique contribution to Cubism. Along with Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, Léger crafted idiosyncratic methods of depicting three-dimensional objects in pictorial space. “I organize the opposition between colours, lines, and curves,” he said of painting. “I set curves against straight lines, patches of colour against plastic forms, pure colours against subtly nuanced shades of grey.” Born on February 4, 1881, in Argentan, France, Léger apprenticed with an architect before moving to Paris in 1900, where he worked as an architectural draftsman. While taking courses at the École des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Julian, he came under the influence of Paul Cézanne, Picasso, and Braque. Around 1905, the artist developed his hallmark style of tubular forms and mechanical imagery. He would go on to create the avant-garde film Ballet Mécanique (1924) and design murals for Le Corbusier's Pavillon de l’Esprit Nouveau (1925). By the end of World War II, Léger’s paintings had become increasingly abstract, with colour transparencies floating amidst boldly drawn figures and objects, as seen in his Two Women Holding Flowers (1954). The artist died on August 17, 1955, in Gif-sur-Yvette, France. Today, his works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Tate Gallery in London, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and the Albertina in Vienna.