VERVE. AN ARTISTIC AND LITERARY QUARTERLY. Volume 1, Numbers 2 – 4: March 1938 – March 1939. E. Teriade [Directeur]. Paris [6e]: 4 Rue Ferou, 1938–1939.

VERVE: AN ARTISTIC AND LITERARY QUARTERLY.

Volume 1, Number 2: March-June 1938

Volume 1, Number 3: October-December 1938

Volume 1, Number 4; January - March 1939

E. Teriade [Directeur]

E. Teriade [Directeur]: VERVE: AN ARTISTIC AND LITERARY QUARTERLY.  Volume 1, Number 2: March-June 1938; VERVE: AN ARTISTIC AND LITERARY QUARTERLY. Volume 1, Number 3: October-December 1938; and VERVE: AN ARTISTIC AND LITERARY QUARTERLY. Volume 1, Number 4; January - March 1939. Paris [6e]: 4 Rue Ferou, 1938–1939. First English editions [texts translated by Robert Sage]. Folio. Publishers red cloth decorated in silver. Covers by Georges Braque, Pierre Bonnard, and Georges Roualt. Elaborate production throughout: typography and process color work by Imprimerie des Beaux-Arts; heliogravure in colors by Draeger Fréres; heliogravure in black and white by Neogravure; and lithography by Mourlot Fréres. Tissue guards present when called for. Two pages with defects: upper corner of page neatly torn and laid in for a page from the Babylon plate from Apocalypses: Portfolio of Ten Early Illuminations presented by Emile A. Van Moé [Issue 2, page 66], and closed tear to upper edge of  The Rising of the Stars of Felicity, presented by Emile A. Van Moé [Issue 3, page 29-30]. Faint tape shadow to front panel, lower cloth edges lightly worn, but a nearly fine example.

[3] 10.25 x 14 perfect-bound magazines with 128, 132, and 140 well-illustrated pages [all pages present]. VERVE proposes to present art as intimately mingled with the life of each period and to furnish testimony of the participation by artists in the essential events of the time. It is devoted to artistic creation in all fields and in all forms. . . . The luxuriousness of VERVE will consist in the publication of documents as fully and as perfectly as possible.

Contents for Number 2: March-June 1938

• Cover: Georges Braque
• Texts
• Reflections by Georges Braque
• The Nude by Paul Valéry
• Posterity and the Poet’s Present by Pierre Reverdy
• Travels in English Literature by André Gide
• Renaissance Psychology by André Malraux
• A Phoenix Park Nocturne by James Joyce
• The Twelve Mansions of Heaven
• The Heat and the Cold by Ernest Hemingway
• The Apocalypse by André Suarès
• Heavenly Bodies by Georges Bataille, with pen and ink designs by André Masson
• Children by Henri Michaux
• Bosch’s “The Conjuror” by Roger Caillois, with reproductions of Three Tarots
• Paintings [Color and Gilt Heliogravure]
• Saint Francis of Assisi Preaching to the Birds [Giotto]
• The Turkish Bath by Ingres
• The Battle of San Romano by Paolo Uccello
• Paintings [Color Process]
• The Promenade by Renoir
• Woman with a Mandolin by Georges Braque
• The Beach by Georges Braque
• Still-Life by Georges Braque
• The Conjuror by Jerome Bosch
• Illuminations [Color and Gilt Heliogravure]
• Apocalypses: Portfolio of Ten Early Illuminations presented by Emile A. Van Moé
• Babylon: upper corner of page neatly torn and laid in
• Satan and the Locusts
• The Flood
• The Shipwreck—The Chained Beast
• The Burning City
• The Rain of Blood
• Rome
• The Last Judgement—Paradise
• Lithographs [Reproduction in Color]
• The Twelve Mansions of Heaven [Portfolio of eight full-page colored illustrations]
• The Heavenly Bodies:
• Stars by Wassily Kandinsky
• Comets by Wassily Kandinsky
• The Sun by André Masson
• The Moon by André Masson
• Drawings
• Portfolio of Engravings by René Boyvin D’Angers
• An Old Grammatical War, portfolio of drawings
• Photographs [Reproducted in Heliogravure]
• Renoir-Van Gogh: portfolio of eight photographs by Maywald and Blumenfeld
• Phantoms of Greece: series of six photographs by Herbert List
• Portfolio of Nudes by Blumenfeld, Marie et Borel, Peterhans and Ecole Fuld
• Portfolio of Children by Herbert List, Henri Cartier-Bresson Bill Brandt and Jenö Denkstein
• Photographs by Bill Brandt, Brassaï, Elliott, Elizabeth R. Hibbs and Machatschek

Contents for Number 3: October  - December 1938

• Cover: Pierre Bonnard
• Texts
• Reflections on Art by Rabindranath Tagore
• Where the Orient Begins by André Siegfried
• To Finish with Poetry by Pierre Reverdy
• Orientem Versus by Paul Valéry
• Remarks on Moslem Art by Louis Massignon
• Idolatry by Henri Michaux
• The Mussulmanic Orient by Elisabeth de Gramont
• Portrayal in the West and the FAr East by André Malraux
• Ecritures by Paul Claudel, facsimile and translation
• Balkis of Sheba by Dr. J. C. Mardrus
• Nimrod by Roger Callois
• Chinese poems and Extravaganzas Landscape by Georges Bataille
• Paintings [Heliogravure in Color and Gold]
• Indian Girl Holding a Flower
• The Bath
• The Snake Charmer by Henri Rousseau
• Paintings[Color Process]
• Indian Paintings
• In the Shade by Pierre Bonnard
• Landscape by Pierre Bonnard
• Le Dejeuner by Pierre Bonnard
• Composition by Henri Matisse
• Odalisque with Magnolia by Henri Matisse
• Portriat by Henri Matisse
• Femmes D’Algier by Delacroix
• Illuminations [Heliogravure in Color and Gold]
• The Assemblies of Al-Hariri: The Enchanted Isle of Oman; The Birth; The Arrival in the Village; The Caravan—Camels
• Bidpai, Forefather of Fables
• The Rising of the Stars of Felicity, presented by Emile A. Van Moé: closed tear to upper edge with neither artwork nor text affected
• Lithographs [Reproduction in Color]
• The Indian Pantheon: Birth of Vishnu; Saint at Prayer; Death of Bali; Demons of Ceylon; Planetary Divinities of Ceylon; Playful Divinities
• The Four Seasons
• Spring by Marc Chagall
• Summer by Joan Miro
• Autumn by Rattner
• Winter by Paul Klee
• Drawings
• Seated Woman by Henri Matisse
• Nude by Henri Matisse
• Figure by Henri Matisse
• Persian Horseman by Rembrandt
• Photographs [Heliogravure Reproduction]
• Persian Portfolio (1860–1880)
• Hindu Portfolio by Gaetan Fouquet
• Photographs of Pierre Bonnard by Rogi André
• Photographs of Ancient Dolls by Schneider-Lengyel
• Promenade of the Harem (old photograph)
• Chinese Portfolio, photographs by Pierre Verger, Thérése Le Prat, Rosie Ney, Zucca, Hoyningen-Huene, Chin San-Long, Old Photographs
• A Selection of Photographs by Zucca, Thérése Le Prat, Pierre VErger, Hurault, Arthur Siegel, Erving Galloway

Contents for Number 4: January - March 1939

• Cover by Georges Roualt
• Texts
• Colloquy within a Mind by Paul Valery
• The Poet's Secret and the Outside World by Pierre Reverdy
• On the Reproduction of Illuminations by Julien Cain
• The Book of Health presented by Emile A. Van Moe
• The Processional Meaning of Spring by Jose Bergamin
• Fragments of Letters by Rainer Maria Rilke
• The Dance by Henri Michaux
• The Story of an Amazon by Jules Supervielle
• Chance by Georges Bataille
• American Memories by Ambroise Vollard
• In the Day of the "Poeuse" by Marie Renard
• Granada by Federico Garcia Lorca
• Murder by Federico Garcia Lorca
• In the Garden of Allah by J.-C. Mardrus
• Yorick by Andre Suares
• Pictorial Conceits by Georges Roualt
• Food by Jean-Paul Sartre
• Festivals, or the Virtue of License by Roger Caillois
• Paintings[Heliogravure in Color]
• includes "Bathsheba" by Rembrandt and "Au Salon" by Toulouse-Lautrec
• Paintings [Color Process]
• Includes work by Courbet, Rousseau, Carpaccio, Seurat, Masson, Rattner, Miro, Bores, Matisse, Roualt, Vuillard, Pascin, Lucus of Leyden, Rubens
• Illuminations [Heliogravure in Color and Gold]
• includes Petrarch's Triumphs, Les Grandes Heures de Rohan, Les Grandes Heures d'Anne de Bretagne, The Book of the Hunt, Interior of a Vapor Bath in the Fifteenth Century, Ovid's Heroides
• Colored Lithographs[Colored Lithographs]
• Tacuinum Sanitatis, Fourteenth Century Book of Health
• The Dance by Henri Matisse
• The Garden of Allah by Andre Derain
• Drawings, Paintings, Statues
• includes work by Matisse, Masson, Laurens, Roualt, Magnasco, Tintoretto, Bellini, Altdorfer, Rembrandt, Tintoretto, Mantegna and Degas
• Photographs [Heliogravure Reproduction]
• Rilke in Paris, Four Photographs by Barna
• The Hunt, Three Photographs by Brassai
• From Seurat to Monet, Photographs by Maywald
• The Scent of a Rose by Devaux-Breitenbach
• The Sun by Erwe
• Gustav Dore's London Rediscovered by Bill Brandt in 1938
• Various Photographs by Claude Simon, Bill Brandt, Breitenbach and Ilse Salberg

Excerpted from the website for DTMAGAZINE [Magazine of the Week: Paris and the Art World of the Late 1930s in Verve magazine by Rick Gagliano, 10/12/06]. "When it comes to quality in the magazine process, possibly no other magazine can match the work of publisher Efstratios Teriade (born in Greece as Efstratios Eleftheriades) and his seminal publication, 'Verve' -- once called 'the most beautiful magazine in the world' by one of its backers - which first burst onto the streets of Paris in December of 1937 . . . . Teriade, an ex-law student with more zeal for the art world and publishing than the law worked variously with fellow countryman Christian Zervos on 'Cahiers d'Art' (1926-31), as art critic for the newspaper 'L'Intransigeant' (1928-33), artistic director of 'Minotaure' (1933-36) and co-founder (1935-36) of 'La Bete Noire' before founding 'Verve' with the financial assistance of David Smart, publisher of 'Esquire' and 'Apparel Arts.' . . . The magazine, a quarterly review of arts and letters, was lavish in design and challenging in content. Teriade's view of the world of art and literature was personal, bold and compelling. The 38 issues that proceeded through Europe's war-torn years and ended abruptly in 1960 were a promenade of covers and interior art by Chagall, Bonard, Matisse, Picasso, Braque, and other distinctive artists of the Paris School. Photographs by Man Ray, Dora Maar, Matthew Brady, Brassai, Cartier-Bresson, Blumenfeld graced many pages and accompanied articles and prose by luminaries of none less identity than John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Andre Malraux, Jean-Paul Sartre, Andre Gide, Albert Camus and others of note, often the presented artists themselves."

And now some background information on why lithography and Fernand Mourlot are synonymous: For more than half a century Fernand Mourlot was synonymous with the resurgence of lithography, a process which would attract under his influence the greatest artistic masters of our times. Under the direction of Fernand Mourlot, artists such as Picasso, Matisse, Chagall, Miró, Braque, Dubuffet, Léger, and Giacometti  enriched their own work as well as contemporary art in general with a new medium of expression, a new realm of experimental possibilities. With Mourlot, and thanks to him, modern lithography took on a personality and found a future.

Mourlot was already working in printing before the outbreak of the First World War; on the rue Saint-Maur, one of the most popular neighborhoods of East Paris, his father owned a lithograph printshop. Jules Mourlot had nine children: Fernand, like his brothers, was relegated to the machines at a very young age, and learned the art first-hand. In June of 1914, Mourlot father was strolling down the rue de Chabrol and saw a hand-written sign: "Printshop for sale." He immediately sold his shares in Russian stock and bought it. In addition to commercial work, the Bataille studio also produced theater and cabaret posters. For two years already Jules Mourlot had operated two printing studios in Paris and Créteil. But his two eldest sons went to war; three years after their return, the father died and the printing studio was renamed Mourlot Frères. Georges, the oldest son, took command of the commercial side of the business; Fernand, the second-oldest, handled the artistic aspects; later a third Mourlot brother, Maurice, a nature and still-life painter, would join them.

One of the most important features of Fernand Mourlot's domain was to be the art poster. For the Delacroix exhibition in 1930, he had the intuition to propose for the first time an exhibition poster prepared and produced as a work of art in its own right. Another important feature would be the lithograph, a painter's medium then limited to illustration. The first painters to create lithographs at the Mourlot Frères studio were Vlaminck and Utrillo; for many years they would be the only ones; the medium, which enjoyed an extraordinary popularity in the 19th century, had been for many years on the decline.

The lithograph, invented by Aloys Senefelder at the end of the 18th century, was immediately accepted in the highest artistic circles; but the medium did not come into its own before its adoption by Cheret, Lautrec, Bonnard and Vuillard: these were the painters who would find in the modern technique and its bold colors a unique form of expression. Fernand Mourlot's stroke of genius was to invite artists to work directly on the stone, as one does when creating a poster. At the same time he carried out experiments with lithographic inks and colors, carefully dosing the varnishes and essences and analyzing the resistance of the resulting tones to the effect of light.

For the 1937 Maitres de l'Art indépendant exhibition at the Petit Palais, the studio created two posters (based on paintings by Matisse and Bonnard) of such excellent quality, it was clear that they had attained the height of printing mastery. It was also in 1937 that the studio began a fruitful collaboration with the editor Tériade, founder of the legendary review Verve. For the six editions after the Second World War Mourlot assisted Matisse, Braque, Bonnard, Rouault and Miró in the creation of important lithographs. "Among all the different techniques for illustrating text," commented Paul Valéry, "the lithograph is perhaps the one that best complements poetry." Some of the most beautiful art books by modern painters were produced on the rue Chabrol; the lithograph,however, would remain an art form for initiates, not reaching its full expression until after the liberation.

In 1945 there walked into the Mourlot studio an artist whose graphic genius and prodigious inventiveness would lend a new dimension to the lithographic process as well as to his own art: Pablo Picasso. "He came like he was going to battle," Fernand remarked. The battle would last four straight months and would be taken up again and again at different points during the next several years. Set up in a corner of the studio which was soon to become his own private domain, Picasso created, between 1945 and 1969, nearly four hundred lithographs at the Mourlot studio. Accompanied by the press-operators Tutins and Célestin, he worked mercilessly, inventing the most complex and extravagant techniques, the inherent difficulties of which were dissolved in the man's customary brio. The workers had never seen such a display of audacity and artistic liberty. The most famous work from this period was "La Colombe de la Paix."

And now some praise for Heliogravure, praised by connoisseurs because of the incomparably rich palette of blacks and shades of gray, the breadth of tonal range, and its exquisite expressiveness. Despite these qualities, Heliogravure has pretty much disappeared over the last fifty years: the costly and time-consuming traditional heliogravure technique has been abandoned in favor of cheaper, faster modern industrial printing methods, such as offset and rotogravure.

Heliogravure belongs to the same family of intaglio printing techniques as engraving, etching and aquatint. As such, it requires an especially good quality of thick paper, one that can draw out the ink from the furthest recesses of the etched copper. In like manner, the plate embosses the finished prints, for its form is impressed into the dampened paper as they pass together through the rollers. Printed by hand in limited quantities, each heliogravure is considered an original, and its value is accordingly assured.