(Paris: L Estampe Moderne, 1923).

FINE AND IMPORTANT ART DECO SIGNED AND UNUSUALLY SCARCE ENGRAVING IN COLOURS. William Ablett was born in London in 1877 but lived for most of his life in Paris, where he died in 1937. He was a leading artist of the Boudoir Movement which was highly popular and influential to the period we now refer to as Art Deco.
The Twenties was the Boudoir Movement s greatest decade. The world was euphoric at the end of the World War I's crazed carnage. Societies celebrated lightheartedly as a new sense of security and prosperity pervaded the Western World. People played. Women forged ahead toward bold and independent destinies. And artists recorded the gay adventure in both traditional forms and modern media. With economies booming in France and America, "original" artist-signed engravings were much preferred over the cheaper mass-produced lithographs. So in the trendier galleries of that day, one might run across many of the newer works of the Boudoir Movement; including the luminary visions of William Ablett, works of Louis Icart, or the traditional sweet beauties of Maurice Millière. By mid decade, these artist where producing fine engraved Serigraphs via Paris distributors, perhaps the most noted being L'Estampe Moderne.
Americans bought most of the pieces that came onto the market. For they were endeared to, and pleasantly challenged by, these French ladies. American women secretly admired their sass and strong wills; the men their daring and pertness. The message behind Boudoir was rarely focused purely on the sexual. There was always that sense of mystique, allure and maybe a "possibility". Therefore, etchings depicting nudes were less popular than those showing women in clinging, translucent gowns, as in the example here. Item #18168

An original Artist Signed Engraving in colours. Limited to only a very small number of copies, SIGNED BY ARTIST WILLIAM ABLETT. A beautiful engraved painting of a lovely woman turned away from the viewer but with her head turned back in profile. She is wearing a translucent gown with a plunging back that is barely visible against her fair skin and which ends in a flowing skirt. She is seated on an upholstered ottoman and holding a large fan made of bright feathers. Image size approximately 16 by 20 on larger sheet, now handsomely mounted in cream boards featuring a small silvered-wood inner frame along the inner edge of the mounting and framed in a matching but much larger silvered-wood frame with attractive carved detailing, glazed. The entire presentation approximately 24 by 27 inches. An extremely fine and handsomely presented piece.