Les Chattes Parisiennes
Paris: Aubert & Cie.,, 1850. Item #06696
“Parisian Cats”
A Rare Aubert Caricature Album by Damourette
DAMOURETTE, Ed. Les Chattes Parisiennes. Dessinées par Ed. Damourette. Paris: Aubert & Cie., [ca. 1850].
Folio (13 1/4 x 9 3/4 inches; 336 x 248 mm.). Lithographed title-page and twenty lithographed plates.
Modern quarter blue cloth over marbled boards, spine lettered in gilt. Original dark yellow pictorial wrapper retained and bound in at front. Wrapper with only the slightest edge soiling; otherwise an exceptionally well-preserved copy, the impressions rich and bright.
A rare and charming album of mid-nineteenth-century French caricature in which the women of Paris are humorously transformed into "cats"- a metaphor long associated in French popular culture with feminine independence, elegance, caprice, flirtation, and cunning. Through a series of lively lithographs, Damourette presents a satirical gallery of Parisian female types, observing with wit and irony the fashions, manners, ambitions, and social rituals of contemporary urban life.
Published by Aubert & Cie., the celebrated house responsible for issuing the works of Daumier, Grandville, Gavarni, Cham, and many of the foremost caricaturists of the nineteenth century, Les Chattes Parisiennes belongs to the rich tradition of illustrated social satire that flourished in Paris during the final years of the July Monarchy and the early Second Empire. Rather than political caricature, Damourette turns his attention to the theater of everyday society, employing anthropomorphic humor and keen observation to lampoon the behavior and affectations of fashionable Parisiennes.
Ed Damourette (fl. 1848-1878) was among the accomplished group of artists associated with Le Charivari and the vibrant Parisian caricature press. Active between approximately 1848 and 1878, he worked in a style reminiscent of Gavarni and Édouard Beaumont, producing numerous humorous lithographs devoted to contemporary manners, costume, and social life. Although widely published during his lifetime, his separately issued albums are today considerably scarcer than those of his more celebrated contemporaries.
An engaging and visually appealing example of French social satire from the golden age of lithographic caricature.
Rare. OCLC/KVK locate only three institutional copies worldwide: the The Morgan Library & Museum, the University of California, Irvine, and the Kunstbibliothek – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.
The Plates:
1. Qu’as-tu à m’offrir?
Un cœur encore neuf, chère amie.
As-tu fini? Tu es gris, mon cher.
"What have you to offer me?"
"A heart still fresh and unspoiled, my dear."
"Have you finished? You're intoxicated, my dear fellow."
2. A qui diable irions nous bien demander à diner?...
"Whom the devil shall we ask for dinner?"
3. Si j’en croyais ma tendresse, mon Arthur, je resterais…
Alors tu ne restes pas?
"If I were to follow my affection, my dear Arthur, I would stay..."
"Then you're not staying?"
4. Mon Henri, sit u venais à me quitter, vois-tu…dábord je ne sais pas ce que je ferais.
"My dear Henri, if you were to leave me, I honestly don't know what I'd do."
"Unfortunately, I think I know perfectly well."
5. Mourir pour la patrie,
Mourir pour la patrie
C’est le sort le plus beau,
Le plus digne d’envie…
"To die for one's homeland,
To die for one's homeland,
Is the noblest destiny,
The fate most to be envied..."
6. Cet homme là m’aidera!
"That man is going to come to my rescue!"
"Yes—he'll help you take what's left of your belongings to the pawnshop, you idiot!"
7. Tu ne t’es jamais douté jusqu’ou pouvait aller mon amour pour toi, Henri…
"You never realized how deep my love for you was, Henri..."
"On the contrary, I was quite certain it had gone a long way away."
8. Dam! Réfléchis, si tu prends le fils, tu tireras au mur. D’un autre côté, si tu prends le pére, tu ne tireras pas au mur, mais aussi il faudra être plus rouée.
Alors j’aime mieux être plus rouée.
"Really, think about it. Marry the son and you'll be chasing an empty purse. Choose the father and there'll be something to gain—but you'll have to play your cards more skillfully."
"Then I'd rather play my cards more skillfully."
9. Vois-tu chéri?
Non.
"You see what I mean, darling?"
"No."
10. J’espère que j’ai été comme il faut pendant le souper, je n’ai pas dit un mot, je n’ai fait que boire.
"I hope I was sufficiently well-behaved at supper. I remained perfectly silent—I did nothing except drink."
11. La certitude que j’ai acquise de votre Sagesse dans la soirée de jeudi, est cause que je vous prie instamment de vous render chez moi, ce soir.
S’il est encore sage ce soir, il faut l’envoyer promener.
"The evidence of your good sense that I observed on Thursday evening prompts me to beg you to visit me tonight."
"If he's still showing good sense tonight, we should send him packing."
12. Dis donc, Nina, quelle chance d’avoir des hommes qui nous entretiennent à rien faire.
Merci, tu appelles ça ne rien faire que de chercher du matin au soir à les amuser!
"Really, Nina, how fortunate we are to have men support us while we sit around doing nothing."
"Doing nothing? Do you call spending every waking hour trying to amuse them doing nothing?"
13. Dans ce monde où l’on voit prier les pires choses, à nos regards charmés la femme est une fleur qui porte sur son front, le doux éclat des roses; et souvent du chagrin, l’épine au fond di cœur.
"In this world, where so much that is unworthy wins admiration, woman appears to our enchanted gaze as a flower, crowned with the soft bloom of roses, yet often concealing within her heart the thorn of grief."
14. Vous n’avez pas de cœur, vous m’avez trompé, moi qui vous ai nourrie et logée tout cela pour vous être agréable.
Pour vous être agréable à vous! Enfin cher ami, je souhaite que vous en trouviez une autre plus fidèle et plus désintéressée.
"You are utterly without feeling. I have supported and housed you, all for the sake of pleasing you, and this is my reward!"
"For the sake of pleasing me? Come, my dear friend. I wish you every success in finding another lady more faithful—and more unselfish—than I."
15. Ah! Ma chére les affaires vont mal, les hommes sont dans la politique jusqu’au cou.
C’est vrai, enfin! Heureusement que notre politique est là pour y remédier.
"My dear, business is dreadful. The men are immersed in politics up to their necks."
"Indeed they are. Luckily, we women have our own politics for dealing with men.".
16. Vous voulez une robe de velours, madame Pierrot.
Qui te là dit?
Vos caresses.
"You are wanting a velvet dress, Madame Pierrot."
"What makes you think so?"
"Your caresses told me."
17. Quand tu desires quelque chose, comment fais-tu?
Je lui fais des caresses, et toi?
Me je le boude.
"When there's something you want, what do you do?"
"I become affectionate with him. And you?"
"I give him the cold shoulder."
18. Qui aimes-tu en ce moment?
–Personne…
–Malheureuse! Et ton loyer?
"Who are you in love with these days?"
"No one."
"Good heavens, then how are you paying your rent?"
19. Si ce vieux sec d’hier, n’apporte pas ce qu’il m’a promis, c’est moi qui le recevrai…
"If that old skinflint from yesterday fails to deliver what he promised, he'll have me to answer to."
20. Mon cher, les femmes vont au bal, pour y trouver des hommes qui leur donnent.
Oui, et nous autres, nous y allons pour y rencontrer des femmes qui ne demandent rien.
"My dear friend, women attend balls to find men willing to support them."
"Quite so—and we attend them in the hope of finding women who want nothing from us."
Bobins V, 1535 (colored copy).
Price: $1,100.00