LIÈVRE, Édouard

Les Douze Mois

Paris: Viginet, 1860. Item #06505

A Jewel of French Decorative Lithography
Édouard Lièvre’s Vision of the Twelve Months

LIÈVRE, Édouard Lièvre. Les Douze Mois. Paris: Vignet, [n.d., ca. 1860s].

First edition. Oblong quarto (8 15/16 x 12 1/8 inches; 227 x 308 mm.). Title-page printed in gold, black, and green.
With twelve fine hand-colored lithograph plates, each accompanied by a protective leaf.

Publisher’s green pebbled boards, front cover elaborately decorated and lettered in gilt. Binding bright, gilt crisp, with only minor wear at extremities; an unusually well-preserved example in original boards.

A beautifully conceived decorative suite representing the twelve months…

The twelve hand-colored lithographs are conceived as intimate seasonal vignettes, each centered on young children engaged in quiet domestic or outdoor activities appropriate to the month. Rather than formal allegorical figures,
Lièvre presents scenes of childhood observation and gentle narrative - reading, tending, resting, or playing - imbued with a sense of calm, order, and refinement.

The children are depicted in elegant period costume, their gestures natural and unforced, often set within carefully rendered interiors or garden settings. Each composition balances figure and environment, with subtle attention to furnishings, textiles, and seasonal detail, reflecting Lièvre’s background as a designer in the decorative arts.

The coloring is delicate and restrained, favoring soft tonal washes over bold saturation, lending the series a unified, atmospheric quality. The result is less overtly didactic than traditional “months” iconography, and instead offers a poetic vision of childhood framed by the passage of the year.

The elaborate publisher’s binding, with its gilt decoration echoing the sophistication of the plates within, makes this an especially appealing survival in original form.

Price: $850.00