Ernest 1902 - 1911

Jean-Émile Laboureur made this print called "Ernest," and it’s like a stage set. The colours are bold, making it easy to see how the printing process works, and the black lines that outline everything have such a great graphic quality. The surface is flat, like a poster, and the colors are solid blocks, but look at that hand resting on the table. The way it’s coloured differently from the face, for example, is great. It’s like he’s playing with the rules of the image. The hand and the face are a similar colour. It’s as if he’s made a rule for himself and then broken it. It puts me in mind of someone like Edward Bawden, who was working around the same time and had a similar interest in depicting urban life using bold designs. But Laboureur has this distinctive edge. The picture feels so still, and yet like all great art, it seems to be in a constant state of becoming.