Georges Braque (after) — “Astéria”, embossed print with fine gold leaf — Heger de Löwenfeld c. 1970

After Georges Braque (1882-1963), Astéria.

A very fine embossed print gilded with 23-carat fine gold, executed after a design by Georges Braque by Baron Heger de Löwenfeld, the artist’s collaborator on his celebrated jewellery creations.

The work belongs to the suite “Hommage aux bijoux de Braque”, devoted to the jewellery pieces conceived by Georges Braque at the end of his life and transposed into relief by Heger de Löwenfeld.

On thick deckle-edged paper, the composition is rendered in pronounced embossing: the motif, entirely gilded in fine gold, stands out markedly from the sheet, lending it an almost sculptural character.

The subject, Astéria, belongs to the mythological repertoire so dear to Braque in the final years of his oeuvre. The figure is reduced to a set of powerful, pared-down lines, midway between drawing, sculpture and jewellery.

Example numbered 186/200 in pencil.

Signature of Heger de Löwenfeld in pencil at lower left.

Signature “G. Braque” in relief / blind stamp in the sheet.

Numerous inscriptions blind-stamped into the paper:

“ASTERIA”; “Or fin 23 carats”; “Hommage aux bijoux de Braque”; “Sculpt. Heger de Löwenfeld”

Edition produced circa 1970-1971.

Examples from this suite are notably documented with the publisher Pierre de Tartas in Paris.

Presented in an elegant bespoke museum-quality frame under glass, the subject set on a raised mount, with anti-reflective and anti-UV glass. Oak edges.

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