Fernand Mourlot, grandson of the founder of Atelier Mourlot, is celebrated as being responsible for the resurgence of colour lithography.
Largely thanks to Mourlot, artists such as Matisse, Miró, and Picasso, rediscovered the technique and used lithography not only as a form of printing, but as an artistic medium to further enrich their own work.
Working with traditional materials and using classic techniques, they were able to create prints that rivalled the quality of an original painting. Furthermore, the lithographic technique made their works more accessible to a broader audience.
Atelier Mourlot became an important place where fine art books, museum exhibition posters and prints were manufactured.
In the late 30s they had become the largest printer of artistic posters and were hired by big museums such as the Tate Gallery, to produce high quality posters for upcoming exhibitions.
We have quite a few pieces produced by Mourlot. One of our favourites is the poster from George Braque’s 1956’s exhibition at Galerie Maeght [Image to the left]. The original was a sketch on newspaper.