Louis BERTHOMME-SAINT-ANDRÉ (1905-1977), Erotic scene with two women, circa 1940.

color lithograph, paper; 28 x 20 cm (frame clear), 42.5 x 34.5 cm (passe-partout dimensions); inscribed and signed at top: 1/100 IR (monogram); illustrations to "Gamiani ou Deux Nuits d'Exces" by Alfred de Musset

L.Berthommé-Saint-André was a painter, printmaker, pupil of Jean Paul Laurens at the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris.
In 1924-1929 he received medals at the Salon of French Artists. In the years 20-30 he lived in Algiers.
He was an illustrator for books by P.Verlaine, G.Apollinaire, Ch.Baudelaire and others.
In Polish, an article "Erotic pictures of Berthommé de Saint André" was dedicated to him on fineartexpress.pl.
Offered is one of the illustration graphics for the work of Alfred de Musset - "Gamiani". According to the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, two books have been published with graphics by this
artist. In 1930 with 15 plates in an edition of 551 copies and before 1940 with 20 plates in an edition of 697 copies. A comparison of the offered prints with those in the mentioned publications indicates that they are very similar, but contain in the margins as if sketches of the same figures or drawings completely unrelated to the main print, as if free samples in the free spaces in the margins or corners. It is likely that these pieces are trial pieces for an edition that did not appear, for example, due to the outbreak of war. Signatures in pencil (lithographer?) with the number "1/100" confirm the assumption that this is a piece to be evaluated for the author or publisher. It is uncertain whether the indicated 100 pieces were rebound, as pieces of this version do not appear at auctions.