RANDON, Gilbert

La Vie de Troupier

Pont-a-Mousson: Haguenthal, 1860. Item #06469

“Barracks, Blunders, and Bonhomie - Randon’s Comic Life of the French Trooper”

RANDON, Gilbert. La Vie de Troupier Charges et Fantasais, À Pied, À Cheval &.a Par Randon. Paris: Maison Martinet, [ca. 1860].

Folio (13 1/2 x 10 inches; 343 x 254 mm.). Hand colored etched title-page and fifteen hand colored etched plates each with a varying number of images.

Publisher's green cloth, covers decoratively tooled in blind, front cover decoratively lettered in gilt, light green spine, endpapers browned, minimal marinal soiling to a few plates, otherwise an excellent copy.

A spirited and highly entertaining military caricature album issued by the prolific Parisian house of Martinet, depicting the comic life of the ordinary French trooper both on foot and on horseback. Randon’s approach is anecdotal rather than satirical in the political sense, focusing instead on the mishaps, vanities, and small absurdities of barracks and cavalry life. The plates, each composed of multiple lively vignettes, anticipate the visual language of the modern comic strip, while the contemporary hand-coloring adds a bright, decorative appeal. Albums of this type, produced for a broad bourgeois audience, were often read to pieces; well-preserved examples in publisher’s cloth are increasingly difficult to find.

Gilbert Randon (1811-1884) was a French lithographer and caricaturist, born in Lyon. He began his career after serving in the cavalry, moving on to work as a lithographer, illustrator, and caricaturist. Randon was a cousin of the renowned photographer Nadar, who invited him to Paris in 1851 to contribute to well-known satirical publications like "Journal pour rire" and "Journal amusant." Throughout his career, Randon was known for his humorous depictions, particularly of the French army under the Second Empire.

Price: $1,750.00