Verve Issues, First Edition (4 results)

Cloth. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: None Issued. 1st Edition. Bound in cloth covered boards--the aforementioned cloth is fraying a bit, and seems ill-chosen for the work at hand, depicting, as it does, some European villa and sundry patterned flowers. The interior is very bright, with all lithographs present. Owner's name and appealingly weird insignia to front end paper.

Paperback. Condition: FINE. First Edition. Complete run of the first four issues of Teriade's legendary art magazine. Beginning with a stunning cover produced by Matisse for the first issue, Verve would incorporate fresh artwork into its cover designed, newly commissioned by artists such as Miro, Picasso, Chagall, and other leading lights of the French art world. Each issue offered spectacular color lithographs printed by the Paris lithographers, Mourlot. Early issues came in litho-printed card wrappers in boxes, later volumes would be in paper-over board with litho covers. This choce allowed Teriade to feature the fresh lithographic artwork in the cover design, but left the books themselves extremely fragile and succeptible to wear. Additionally, the full-page lithographs have been continuous targets for art dealers looking to excise the plates. So condition seen here is quite rare, with each volume preserved COMPLETE + FINE with no signs of the wear and toning so commonly seen. 'The cover of Verve No. 1 is by Henri Matisse; it consists of three unmodulated colors--red, blue, and black--that the master cut directly from printers' ink specimen books. . Mattisse's cover for the first issue, lithographed by Fernand Mourlot printers, was an original work of art created expressly for the magazine--as would be practically all of the Verve's covers. . The painter took great pains to make sure that the cover would turn out exactly as he wished. . THe care Matisse lavished on what others might consider a minor undertaking was one of the hallmarks of Teriade's publications. How did he induce the greatest artists of this century to give the very best of themelves? . Matisse and Teriade shared a common ideal. For both of them, painting was life itself.' (Michel Antonioz, VERVE: The Ultimate Review of Art and Literature, 35-36).

Softcover. Condition: Good. First edition. Folio wrappers. Three volume set in slipcase. Good only with chipped spines, owner's name penned on slipcase in good only slipcase with stains and edges worn. Many color plates tipped in. The eighth issue, which was published just before the fall of Paris, is particularly uncommon due to war. More than half the copies normally sent to United States were lost. Contains, lithographs, drawings, and paintings by Matis, Bonnard, Rouault. Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry Calendar. Brassai, Bronte, Goya, Bonnard, and others.

Soft cover. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The first four issues of the UK edition of one of the most beautiful quarterlies ever made. Includes contributions by so many of the great artists and writers of the period that it is difficult to enumerate, with hundreds of full-page lithographs published in sumptuous colour. All texts translated to English from the French by Robert Sage. Issue 1 - lithographs by Bores, Leger, Miro and Matisse, photographs by Man Ray, Brassaï and Guichard. Texts by Andre Gide, Georges Bataille, Lorca, Malraux, Michaux, Matisse and more. Issue 2 - lithographs by Kandinsky, Braque and others, and textual contributions by Hemingway and James Joyce amoung others. Issue 3 - lithographs by Chagall, Miro and Klee and Bonnard, and texts by Tagore, Valéry and Bataille and more. Issue 4 - lithographs by Derain, Matisse and George Rouault, and photographs by Brassaï, Brandt and others. Includes texts by Lorca and Jean-Paul Sartre. There are two small tears at the margins on two pages of issues 3 and 4, but the group is otherwise in remarkably Fine condition, the colours bright and the pages clean throughout. Housed in a custom made slipcase that is a little frayed at the spine.