Hesperide (Hespéride)

Description

In the Desjobert atelier in Paris Masson continued with the black-and-white lithographic technique he had employed in New York with George Miller. The Desjobert atelier saw Masson’s first forays into color lithography, first with just two colors, then with several, as in Hespéride, which shows a complex interweaving of colors and shapes. The Hesperides were Atlas’ three daughters, who guarded the golden apples sought by Hercules. In a highly abstract manner Masson depicts just one of the daughters, whose body is rendered by curving lines and rounded forms, in particular the breastlike shapes with stars suggesting nipples.
This print was purchased by the Museum of Art directly from Masson’s dealer Curt Valentin, who ran the Buchholz Gallery.
Label copy from exhibition "Dreamscapes: The Surrealist Impulse," August 22 - October 25, 1998