Original Poster for "F. Léger 1881-1956."

Paris: Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 1956.. 76 x 52 cm. Printed by Fernand Mourlot on rag paper watermarked "Mourlot." A condition. Not in Saphire. ...Fernand Mourlot was born in Paris in 1895. He grew up in the family print shop but it wasn’t until he took over in the early 1920s that he would change the fabric of printing forever. His influence fostered a resurgence of lithography, revealing it as a new avenue for expression and a new realm of possibilities for likes of Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall, Joan Miró, Georges Braque, Fernand Léger, and Alberto Giacometti to enrich their own work as well as fine art in general. Fernand cultivated the lithograph as a painter’s medium and the family studio on Rue Chabrol became a hub where he could invite artists to work directly on the stone, as if creating a poster. In 1937, the studio produced two posters (based on paintings by Matisse and Bonnard) for the Maitres de l’Art indépendant exhibition at the Petit Palais. The posters were of such excellent quality that it was clear they had attained the height of printing mastery. Fernand retired in the mid 1970s but his name remains to this day synonymous with rebirth of lithography.