This absolute showstopper by Gaspar Camps is an early example of photo-offset printing, here referred to as "photo-lithographie." The printing technique involved transferring an inked image from a plate to a rubber blanket before combining it with the lithographic process: reinvented (for paper) in America in 1904. Camps' grand indulgence with the colors and forms of peak Art Nouveau testifies to a singular, "have your cake and eat it too" moment in art history: when photo-realism and artistic fantasy could coexist. That moment has only returned in our own digital era.
literature: Imprimerie, p. 59; PAI-LXXVIII, 204