KER-XAVIER — Noli Me Tangere, [Touch Me Not]

0. No Binding. Print, Ker-Xavier Roussel, (French, 1867-1944), Noli Me Tangere, [Don't Touch Me], lithograph on tan wove paper, 1894. Published by " L'Estampe Originale" (Andre Marty) for "La Revue Blanche", No. 30, April 1894. Edition of 100. Image size: 8 7/8x5 1/2 inches. Original 18x14 inch carved wood frame, with mat board & glass front. From estate of Eric Carlson, a professional dealer of 19th-20th century French and American prints and drawings and a university professor of art history at SUNY-Purchase Dissatisfied with the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Roussel joined a group of artists who called themselves Nabis (Hebrew for "prophets"). Typical of the group, Roussel drew this subject from the Bible. Noli me tangere - Latin for "Don't touch me" - refers to the passage where Christ appears to Mary Magdalene after the resurrection. Roussel's is an enigmatic depiction of a subject common in medieval and renaissance art interpreted as a rejection of the sensual in favor of a contemplative life. Using tusche, an oily ink applied with a brush, to cover the lithographic stone and then scraping it away, Roussel employs a subtractive method to create ghost-like forms floating off the top of the sheet.[Blanton Museum of Art]. Very Good.