LIMITED EDITION OF MAILLOL’S LITHOGRAPHS FOR LIFAR’S LA DANSE

(MAILLOL, Aristide) LIFAR, Serge. Pensées sur la Danse. [Paris]: Bordas, (1946). Folio, contemporary full gray morocco, front cover decorated with black, blue, orange and red morocco onlays, orange reverse calf endpapers, uncut. Housed in a custom felt-lined clamshell box. $3500.

Limited edition, number 587 of only 745 copies of dancer and director Lifar’s “Thoughts on the Dance,” with seven wonderful full-page lithographs by Maillol, beautifully bound in full morocco with colorful morocco onlays in the form of dancers.

Lifar, while dancing and directing the Opera Ballet in Paris, became well-acquainted with many of the most distinguished artists of his day, acquiring an impressive collection of paintings, first exhibited in December, 1929. Maillol’s model for this suite of drawings for Lifar’s Pensées sur la Danse, executed in 1942, was Lifar himself. “The figures of Maillol have a robustness, a sense of being deeply rooted in the sun-baked earth” (Aukland Art Center). Preface by Paul Valéry. This is one of 350 copies on Vélin de Rives paper from a total edition of 745. Text in French.

Fine condition. Beautifully bound.