• lithograph, 1966
• hand signed lower right recto
• numbered from the sole edition of 75 on Arches lower left recto
• dated in the stone 30-3-66 lower left recto
• image size 25⅝" x 19¾" (65 x 50 cm.)
• paper size 30" x 22¼" (76 x 56.5 cm.)
• printed at Atelier Mourlot, Paris
• published by Galerie Le Bateau Lavoir, Paris
• Literature: Mira Jacobs, Paul Delvaux: Oeuvre Grave, Editions Andre Sauret, 1976, pp.32-33, no.9

Delvaux's first four lithographs, created earlier in the same year of 1966, were achieved utilizing drawings on transfer paper which were subsequently applied to the stone. The present work is the artist's first true stone lithograph drawn directly on the plate.

Translated from Mira Jacobs, Paul Delvaux: Oeuvre Grave, 1976:
[Delvaux's] initial works as a lithographer aroused his curiosity and the artist desired to further explore the possibilities that this technique offered.
He decided to travel to Paris. Twenty years of broken contact with the capital was reconnected as if by miracle, thanks above all to the group of men who, by the quality of their professionalism and the warmth of the camaraderie naturally established with them, formed a unique human whole: the workshop of Mourlot. He was immediately adopted there and, surrounded as much by deference as by friendship, admitted to feeling happy and free to work among them.
This is his first lithograph made directly on the stone. The finesse, the subtlety of the line of the drawing thus obtained, making it possible to modulate shadow and light - essential constants of its plastic language - seduced the artist who took the greatest pleasure in it.
Sensing all that this technique, so close to drawing yet still specific, allowing him to remain a "painter" on the stone itself, brings him new discoveries and develops a friendship for lithography.
During the years that followed, he would make frequent and regular stays in Paris. This is the beginning of a series on stone which will produce some of the most beautiful plates in the world of his printed body of work.