GAVARNI, Paul [pseudonym of Guillaume Sulpice Chevallier]

Les Artistes

Paris: Chez Aubert, 1838. Item #05490

Sixteen Hand-Colored Lithographed Plates by Gavarni
"Les Artistes"

GAVARNI, Paul. [pseudonym of Guillaume Sulpice Chevallier]. Les Artistes. Paris: Chez Aubert, [1838].

Oblong folio (9 7/8 x 13 5/8 inches; 251 x 346 mm.). Sixteen hand-colored lithographed plates, heightened with gum arabic. Plates printed by Aubert et Cie. All plates mounted on guards. Plate nos. 5, 6, 8, 9 & 13 with repaired tears to blank lower margins, plate no. 2 with small repair to blank fore-margin.

Chemised in a quarter black morocco over black cloth boards clamshell case. Spine with five raised bands decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt.

“Nearly every lithographic artist recorded in caricature some aspect of his own profession. Gavarni devoted an entire series, Les Artistes, to this theme, usually exposing the contrast between the illusory nature of the image being represented and the more ludicrous reality of the subject, or sometimes, as here, treating confrontations between bohemian and bourgeois. The artist, as in this image, is often portrayed in some degree of bohemian dishevelment. The pose being adopted by the self-conscious bourgeois sitter bears a striking resemblance to the portrait of the publisher Louis Bertin, painted by Ingres in 1832” (Beatrice Farwell, The Charged Image, p. 83, describing plate no. 7 in Les Artistes).

Paul Gavarni (1804-1866). "A French artist best known for his lithographs, Paul Gavarni (née Chevalier Suplice Guillaume) was born in Paris on January 13, 1804. Throughout his lifetime Gavarni produced over 4000 satirical prints for journals and fashion magazines. Both delicately witty and elegantly revealing of human behavior and character, Gavarni's genre scenes made him one of the most important and popular nineteenth-century artists. He is often critically paired with Honoré Daumier with whom he (and other young printmakers like Jean-Jacques Grandville and Joseph Traviés) raised the status and importance of social lithography and printmaking as an art form… In the 1830s he began to work for L'Artiste, La Caricature, and, most importantly, Le Charivari. The latter was owned by Charles Philipon, and became Gavarni's longest running contract and most important place of publication. Here Gavarni published some of his most famous series, including Les Artistes, La Boite aux Lettres, Clichy (inspired by his month-long stay in debtor's prison), Les Coulisses, Les Enfants Terribles, Impressions de Ménage, etc., etc."
(childsgallery.com)

Armelhault & Bocher, nos. 332-345; Not in Bobins.

The Plates:

1. Ma Sainte te ressemble, n'est pas Nini? P’us souvent que j'ai un air chose comme ça!
2. Vois-tu amarade voilà comme tu trouveras toujours les vrais Artistes...
3. La Madelaine c’était une femme qu’avait fait des bêtises n’est-pas m’sieu Henry?...
4. (Le Patissier au Mannequin) M’sieu Chandellier? Mosieu Chandellier, si vous plait?...
5. (Etienne) Tu ne fais donc pas d’études? (Prosper) Je me servirai des tiennes...
6. Ces messieurs sont sans doute officiers de messieurs les hussards en garnison dans cette ville.
7. Voyons! me trouvez-vous bien comme ça?
8. Le feu, mon brave, est un élément de nostre existence – Bien obligé!
9. Ô bon! M’ame Jean! v’la qui tire vot’ clos! In peu qui tire l’clos de m’ame Jean!
10. Un peu de poèsie dans cette tête-la et vous serez joliment ressemblant, allez!
11. Monsieur le duc!...donnez vous la peine d’entrer.
12. Mon Général...mon Général! vous dormez en faction!
13. St. Pierre, mon ami, vous êtes capot!
14. Et à quelle heure puis-je venir vous voir, mon cher monsieur...sans vous déranger?...
15. C’est vraiment une chose profondément pénible à considérer que l’ignoble allure de ces tristes bourgeois...
16. (L’Atelier du Lithographe.) Comme c’est leger!

Price: $12,500.00