Parisian Style: Rare Lithographs by Picasso, Matisse and friends from Atelier Mourlot

The dynastic Mourlot family has been associated with the arts since Jules Mourlot ,(1850–1921), founded the Imprimerie Mourlot, or the Mourlot Studios as it was later known. The son of lithographer Francois Mourlot, (1828–1902), Jules was instrumental in creating the art poster as a genre in its own right, and later, for the production of fine art, limited edition lithographs. During the 1930s, Fernand Mourlot, (1895–1988), founded Editions Mourlot and began asking a new generation of artists to work directly on lithography stones which started a relationship between fine art and printmaking that remains to this day.

Notably, in 1937 the studio created two posters, one by Bonnard and one by Matisse for the Maitres de l'Art indépendant exhibition at the Petit Palais. Both artists were so impressed by the posters' excellent quality that Mourlot Studios became the leading lithographic printer for fine artwork. That same year, the studio also began a long collaboration with the editor Tériade, who founded the legendary art review "Verve." After the Second World War, Mourlot assisted Matisse, Braque, Bonnard, Rouault and Miró in the creation of important lithographs for the review.  In 1945, Picasso returned to the lithography and set up in a corner of the shop which soon become his home for several months at a time. He created over four hundred lithographs at Mourlot over the next two decades. Several of the Mourlot family have subsequently continued in the family business or have been associated with the arts, either as artists themselves or gallery founders.

Lizzie Collins, founder of Zuleika Gallery and Atelier Zuleika, and Gyr King, founder of print and publisher King and McGaw have known each other for many years and collaborated since 2015 with a pop-up exhibition of fine art posters in Masons Yard, London in 2019. We are delighted to be able to collaborate once again at Zuleika Gallery in Woodstock to bring you a wonderful exhibition of rare and limited edition posters and prints from early and mid-twentieth century Paris.