Signed; Auguste Herbin; Anatole Jakovski - Herbin [with dedication] - 1933

Anatole Jakovski – Herbin (No. 274) – 1933

Copy No. 274, dedicated by Auguste Herbin: “to Madame H. Bénézit in memory of the ‘Herbin’ exhibition of June 1958 — Paris, June 4, 58. AHerbin”

Original edition numbered No. 274, limited print run of one thousand copies; softcover
Published by Éditions “Abstraction-Création”, 26, Boulevard Masséna, 13th arrondissement, Paris
Printed in October 1933, on the presses of Montmartre printing house, Logier Frères, Master Printers

56 pages; numerous illustrations in and out of text
Dimensions: 27.8 x 22.7 cm

Very good condition for a work of almost 100 years, interior fresh, some minor signs of use, slight sunning, binding slightly weakened, all visible in the photos.

Rare copy of the work devoted to Auguste Herbin by Anatole Jakovski, published in 1933 in the founding context of the Abstraction-Création group. This book bears witness to a key moment in the history of abstraction, closely following the evolution of Herbin, whose geometric vocabulary and exploration of color profoundly renewed the artistic language of the 20th century. The iconography, careful and abundant, appropriately accompanies this demanding approach.

This copy takes on a particularly special dimension due to the autograph dedication by Auguste Herbin to Madame Bénézit, wife of Henri Bénézit, a gallery owner and art dealer active in the Paris milieu — Galerie Henri Bénézit formerly located at 20 Rue de Miromesnil, Paris VIII. It testifies to the direct links between the artist and the players in the art market of his time, within a network where the Bénézit family occupies a distinctive place, between dealer activity and documentary authority.

Henri Bénézit ran a eponymous gallery dedicated to contemporary art in Paris, contributing to the diffusion of modern artists in a particularly dynamic context for the avant-gardes. This provenance adds extra value to the work, both historically and symbolically.

Auguste Herbin (1882–1960) is a major figure in French abstraction. Trained in Lille, he began in a post-Impressionist style before joining the Cubist avant-garde in the 1910s. After a temporary return to figuration, he permanently embraced abstraction in the early 1930s and helped found the Abstraction-Création group in 1931. From the 1940s onwards, he developed a rigorous geometric language based on a plastic alphabet linking shapes and colors, which would leave a lasting mark on postwar abstract art.

A copy that is at once representative of a key avant-garde and enriched by a particularly evocative provenance.