[Caricatures Militaires from Le Monde Plaisant]

From Le Monde Plaisant
The Military, Fire Brigade, Etc. Lampooned
At the Beginning of the Third French Republic

LAVRATE, Edmond, and LEMAITRE, V. [Caricatures Militaires from Le Monde Plaisant ] Nos Troupiers. Le Garde Nationale. [Plus Two Additional Unititled Suites]. Paris: Chez A. Boivin, n.d. [c. 1878-85].

Folio (13 3/8 x 10 3/4 in; 143 x 275 mm). 108 hand-colored lithographs, stub-mounted, four of which, at rear, are double-page fold-outs. Image size, exclusive of title and caption: 8 1/8 x 7 inches (208 x 178 mm). Lithography by L. Bouvier, Walter Fres., and Destouches.

Bound c. 1950 in three-quarter dark red, hard-grain morocco over marbled boards, ruled in blind. Spine with five raised bands decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt in compartments. An excellent copy of this compilation of caricatures that originally appeared in Le Monde Plaisant.

Extremely scarce. These prints were never, apparently, separately published in albums and appear here only through the devotion of a discerning collector.

Edmund Lavrate was a prominent mid 19th century caricaturist of French everyday life whose cartoons appeared weekly in Le Monde Plaisant, a popular comic and satirical journal. At one time his illustrations were censured and banned from sale due to their vulgar and devilish nature; anti-clerical themes were a specialty of his. His caricatures also came under official scrutiny for their scathing satire of the French military and Garde Nationale due to the turmoil surrounding the establishment of, and myriad political challenges to, the Third Republic in the wake of France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the Siege of Paris (1870-1871), and the collapse of the Second Empire. With many factions, to declare oneself a republican begged the question, What kind of republican? To which Lavrate apparently answered, The funny kind.

[Lavrate] "is the painter of epic meal priests, banquet firefighters, and grotesque municipal councils" (Andre Salmon).

Of V. Lemaitre, another contributor to Le Monde Plaisant and the compilation under notice, little is known.

The Plates:
Nos Troupiers: 24 of 26 plates? (possibly bound without plate numbers 15 & 18).
[Untitled- The Fire Brigade?] 24 plates.
Le Garde Nationale: 26 plates.
[Untitled - The Fire Brigade?] continued, 30 plates.
[Untitled - The Fire Brigade?] Four unnumbered, double page plates heightened with gum arabic.

Price: $13,500

   (To order this item, or for more information, please call 818-222-4103)