Mourlot Studios

March 14, 2017

Many people are surprised to see in our gallery beautiful lithographs of works by the 20th century masters - at an affordable price. Sadly, for many who walk in to browse, the rise of the modern Giclee print in current high street commercial galleries has implanted the idea of a print being inferior to an ‘original’. Here at The Art Hound Gallery we celebrate the art of original print making and focus on artists who work in that medium. It’s a well known secret in the art trade that your affordable way to owning a Chagall, Matisse or Picasso is to buy an original lithograph created by the Mourlot Studios, Paris.

Originally a commercial print shop founded in 1852 by the Mourlot Family in Paris, it began producing wallpaper and chocolate wrappers, but in the 1920’s Fernand Mourlot, grandson of the original founder, converted one of the family’s print buildings to a studio dedicated to fine art lithography. Lithography (the art of printing via a stone or metal plate) had by this point fallen from fashion, after reaching a peak in the late 19th century. The Mourlot studios soon became the place for galleries to create their posters for upcoming exhibitions, including the Manet at the French National Museums in 1930 and Mourlot’s posters are considered works of art in their own right.

But it was in 1937 when the Mourlot Studios created a poster for Matisse for the Maitres de l'Art indépendant exhibition at the Petit Palais, that Mourlot became synonymous with fine art lithography. Matisse was so impressed with with Mourlot’s work that it began a long collaboration between them. After World War II, the studio began printing for the famous Art review ‘Verve’ creating original fine art lithographs for them featuring artists such as Matisse, Joan Miro and Georges Braque.

This was not a relationship where an artist left a printer to simply re-create and publish an original painting. Fernand Mourlot first invited artists to learn the skill of lithography alongside the master printers of the studio, working directly on the stones to create original artworks. This led to a permanent collaboration between artist and print-maker, meaning the lithographs are an undeniable part of the artist’s original genius and work. Fernand Mourlot says it himself best; “Conceived, brought forth, watched over and supervised by the artist himself, in an atmosphere of creative excitement, all these prints are original, living works.”

In 1945, Pablo Picasso decided to make a return to lithographic printing, and Mourlot Studios became his home for months on end, having set up to work in a corner of the shop. Picasso created over 400 lithographs in between 1945 and 1969 with Mourlot. The studios also opened in New York and produced lithographs with such pop luminaries as Robert Rauschenberg and Roy Lichtenstein, as well as artists such as Francis Bacon.

The Art Hound Gallery has many original lithographs by Mourlot on sale - you can find works by Matisse, Chagall, Picasso, Alexander Calder and many more on sale and in display in our gallery.

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