NEW YORK, NY.- On Thursday, March 8 Swann Galleries will conduct a two-part auction, beginning with an exceptional collection of prints, drawings, paintings and livres d’artiste by Jean-Émile Laboureur, and followed by more than 600 lots of 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings.

This sale is the most significant single-owner auction of Laboureur’s work ever offered. There are examples of his Belle Époque depictions of Parisian dance halls and restaurants, his Cubist-inspired landscapes from the 1920s and the engravings and book illustrations he was also well known for. Throughout his prolific career—he created 800 prints over the span of 43 years—Laboureur worked with the likes of Toulouse-Lautrec, poet Guillaume Apollinaire and, his closest friend, the artist Marie Laurencin. He was also greatly influenced by the work of Braque and Picasso, Odilon Redon, Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis and Félix Vallotton.

Paintings by the artist include Nantes, Le Cours Cambronne, oil on board, circa 1896 (estimate: $3,000 to $5,000); Femme qui se peigne, oil on canvas, circa 1900-05, which appears to have been influenced by Toulouse-Lautrec’s same-titled color lithograph ($4,000 to $6,000); La Robe bleu, oil on paper, circa 1910 ($2,000 to $3,000); and Sur la Tamise, depicting punters on the Thames, a subject he returned to more than once, oil on board, 1913 ($7,000 to $10,000).

Laboureur founded the Société des Peintres-Graveurs Independants, and was proficient in several printing techniques including woodcut, wood engraving, etching, drypojnt, lithography and aquatint. Print highlights in the auction include Le Quartier Neuf, color woodcut, 1901, depicting a neighborhood in Dresden where Laboureur lived at the turn of the century ($2,000 to $3,000); Ernest, Garcon de Restaurant, color woodcut and lithograph, and the sturdy for this print, done in color pastels and pencil, circa 1902-10 ($3,000 to $5,000 and $5,000 to $8,000 respectively); the scarce Lassitude, a close-up portrait of a woman under the influence of opium, color woodcut on Japan paper, 1912 ($4,000 to $6,000); Vue Panoramique du Port de Saint-Nazaire, etching, 1919-20 ($1,000 to $1,500); Le Vieux Poirier, engraving, 1925 ($1,500 to $2,500); and La Halte des Bohémiens, engraving, 1938 ($1,500 to $2,500). In addition, there are several portfolios and sets of prints offered.

Among illustrated books of note are Le Diable Amoureux by Jacques Cazotte, with seven pencil drawings and 20 engravings, 1920 ($2,000 to $3,000); Petits et Grands Verres, Choix des Meilleures Recettes de Cocktails, deluxe edition with an additional suite of prints, 1926 ($1,50 to $2,500); and Les Contrerimes by Paul-Jean Toulet, with numerous etchings and a group of 12 pencil, pen and ink, wash and watercolor drawings, 1929-30, the artist’s bon à tirer copy, accompanied with a copy from the edition of 301 ($2,000 to $3,000).

The auction continues at noon with a rich assortment of 19th Century Prints & Drawings. Highlights include Edouard Manet’s Guerre Civile, lithograph on violet chine appliqué ($10,000 to $15,000); Edgar Degas’s La Sortie de Bain, drypoint and aquatint, 1879-80 ($25,000 to $35,000); Claude Monet and George W. Thornley’s Brouillard à Vétheuil, lithograph on chine appliqué, circa 1908 ($18,000 to $22,000); and a run of etchings by James A.M. Whistler, among them The Kitchen, 1858 ($8,000 to $12,000); The Piazzetta, 1880 ($20,000 to $30,000); The Fishing Boat, 1879-80 ($12,000 to $18,000); and Lagoon: Noon, 1879-80 ($10,000 to $15,000).

The afternoon session opens with nearly 200 prints by American artists, featuring city views by Childe Hassam, George Bellows, Edward Hopper and Martin Lewis; color woodcuts by Bror J.O. Nordfeldt and Gustave Baumann; western images by Edward Borein; etchings of rowdy crowds by Paul Cadmus; as well as Thomas Hart Benton’s The Race, lithograph 1940 ($10,000 to $15,000); and The Mexican Masters Suite portfolio with eight color lithographs by Tamayo, Siqueiros, Cuevas and Zuñiga ($12,000 to $18,000).

Among the European Prints & Drawings is an exceptional unique work by Georges Braque: Oiseau, oil and pencil on paper laid down on canvas, circa 1957-58, which was begun after Braque’s 1955 visit to a bird sanctuary in Camargue, and reflects the artist’s experimentation with collage and the spatial relationships between compositional parts ($200,000 to $300,000).

There are several fine prints by Picasso including Sculpteur et Modèle agenouillé, etching, 1933 ($20,000 to $30,000); Tête de Femme, etching on Montval paper, 1938 ($10,000 to $15,000); Figure, lithograph, 1948 ($20,000 to $30,000); Maison close: Le Chocolat II, sugar-lift aquatint, etching and engraving, 1955 ($35,000 to $50,000); and Le Pique, linoleum cut in red and yellow, 1959 ($50,000 to $80,000).

Also featured are Henri Matisse’s Nu, Étude de torsion du corps, lithograph, 1926 ($40,000 to $60,000); Fernand Léger’s Femme Tenant un Vase, lithograph on Japan Impérial, 1928 ($12,000 to $18,000); Edvard Munch’s Selbstbilnis mit Weinflasche, lithograph, 1930 ($40,000 to $60,000); a pen and ink drawing by Marc Chagall, Clown et femme nue, circa 1940 ($15,000 to $20,000); Kees van Dongen’s La Marquise de Casati, color lithograph on nacré crème, circa 1950 ($10,000 to $15,000); and Max Ernst’s La loterie du jardin zoologique, etching and aquatint with hand coloring in watercolor and gouache, 1951 ($12,000 to $18,000).

The first session of the auction, Jean-Émile Laboureur: Prints, Paintings & Livres d’Artise, will take place on Thursday, March 8 at 10:30 a.m. 19th Century Prints & Drawings will follow at noon, and 20th Century American and European Prints at 2:30 p.m.

The works of art will be on public exhibition at Swann Galleries on Saturday, March 3, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Monday, March 5 through Wednesday, March 7, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.