Les Conquérants. Trente-trois eaux-fortes originales en deux couleurs d'André Masson

Paris: Albert Skira, 1949. Masson, André. Original wrappers, as issued, in chemise and slipcase. Folio, 15-1/2 x 11 inches. 223 pp., 33 aquatint etchings printed by Roger Lacourière. From a total edition of 165, this is one of the first 25 copies, which were printed on Marais paper and include an original wash drawing. This copy contains the drawing for the frontispiece, arguably the best in the book. There are two extra suites of the illustrations, one in color on Montval, the other in black on Ingres, from a total edition of 150 copies signed on the colophon by author, illustrator, and publisher. In addition four proofs on a variant paper are specially signed by Masson. From the collection of Lawrence Saphire, with a note laid in concerning the extra plates. Reva Castleman approvingly quotes Daniel Kahnweiler, who called this "among the most beautiful books of our times". Masson's aquatints "erupt throughout the text like the flickering of film that intermittently slides off its sprockets, a fitting commentary on the literary form Malraux had devised under the influence of the Russian director Sergei Eisenstein's cinematic style" Castleman, A Century of Artists Books, New York, 1994. p.31, 130. This image is one of the 33 aquatints created to illustrate Les Conquerants (The Conquerors), a novel about civil unrest in China by André Malraux, first published in Paris in 1928.

Swiss publisher Skira, who wanted to produce publications in "the tradition of the ‘great illustrated books,'" commissioned Masson in 1947 to illustrate Andre Malraux's novel. Prior to this commission Masson had recently returned from Atelier 17 in New York after studying printmaking techniques with Stanley Hayter (Brit., 1901-1988), who originally had his studio in Paris prior to WWII. Masson's aquatints for Les Conquerants are considered to be technically complex, using gradations of only one colour along with black. The plates are larger than the format and therefore there are no platemarks. Ref: Saphire #272.