Yvette Guilbert.

Paris.: L'Estampe Originale., 1894.. Original publisher's printed wrappers with title and original lithograph by Toulouse-Lautrec to front wrapper, sheets held in by canvas cords.. Square folio. (408 x 390 mm).. Leaf with justification verso, blank, leaf with publisher's imprint verso, 16 leaves with Geffroy's text and original lithographs by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, all printed in olive green ink recto only, 2 blank leaves, final leaf with colophon recto. Sheet size: c.375 x 390 mm. Toulouse-Lautrec's masterpiece, pre-dating Bonnard's 'Parallèlement' by some 6 years, and one of the earliest and greatest modern illustrated books.From the edition limited to 100 numbered copies on Arches, signed by Yvette Guilbert in green crayon.The silhouettes of the female entertainers such as Yvette Guilbert and Jane Avril had already appeared in Lautrec's 1892 poster Divan Japonais, and again in his illustrations for Georges Montorgueil's Le Café Concert of 1893. In the Yvette Guilbert volume, published the following year, Lautrec, in his 16 lithographs, depicts the singer in a variety of poses, her restless gestures breaking the narrow composition and stabbing into the text itself. Toulouse-Lautrec was known to oversee the printing process with care, often inking his subjects himself, and, when creating original lithographs - as here - drew directly on the lithographic stone. 'Yvette Guilbert, the famous singer in many cafés and revues of the nineties, was one of Lautrec's favourite subjects … these sharply observed lithographs … have immortalized her.' (The Artist and the Book).[Wittrock 69 - 85; The Artist and the Book 301].