Lithographies d'après le Chansons de Beranger
Paris: Bernard et Delarue, 1828. Item #06723
One of the Rarest of all the Hand-Colored Suites Illustrated by Henri Monnier
MONNIER, Henri. Lithographies d'après les Chansons de Béranger par Henry Monnier. [Paris]: Bernard et Delarue, [1828].
First edition. Oblong quarto (9 3/8 x 12 inches; 239 x 305 mm.). Twenty-four superb hand-colored lithographed plates, each illustrating one of Pierre-Jean de Béranger's celebrated songs. Plate III (La Mère Aveugle) with a neatly repaired one-inch tear in the lower margin, well clear of the image.
Mid-twentieth-century three-quarter teal cloth over marbled boards, spine with red morocco label lettered in gilt.
Complete with the publisher's original lithographed gray wrappers bound in. An exceptionally fresh copy of one of the rarest and most desirable French lithographic albums of the Restoration period.
Each plate was lithographed by Bernard ("Publié par Bernard et Delarue, lithographié à la plume"), the title of each chanson serving as the caption beneath the illustration. Henri Monnier's remarkable gift for characterization is evident throughout the series. With extraordinary economy of line, subtle hand-coloring, and keen powers of observation, he transformed Béranger's immensely popular songs into vivid theatrical scenes populated by soldiers, lovers, old men, workers, peasants, and ordinary Parisians. Few artists of the period matched Monnier's ability to combine humor, sentiment, and social commentary within a single composition.
Pierre-Jean de Béranger (1780–1857) was the most celebrated French chansonnier of the nineteenth century. His songs, admired for their wit, clarity, patriotism, and political satire, enjoyed immense popularity across every level of French society. Their republican sympathies repeatedly brought him into conflict with the Restoration government, culminating in his imprisonment in La Force Prison, an episode that only enhanced his public reputation. During his lifetime Béranger was arguably the most widely read - and sung - poet in France.
Gordon Ray regarded this album as the beginning of the great tradition of illustrating Béranger's works, observing that "Monnier began the tradition with this suite in 1828, and no subsequent artist surpassed him in sympathy and versatility." He further notes that complete copies are of the utmost rarity.
Monnier would return repeatedly to Béranger's poetry throughout his career, producing additional illustrated series, but this first suite remains his masterpiece. Marie likewise praises the refinement of Monnier's early lithographs, noting the remarkable delicacy of his draftsmanship, the restrained yet brilliant coloring, and the expressive power achieved through the simplest of means.
Excessively rare. OCLC records only a single institutional copy, at the Morgan Library & Museum, New York. We have been unable to trace another complete copy appearing at auction during the past fifty years.
The Plates:
Le Roi d'Yvetot
Le Sénateur
La Mère Aveugle
Le Petit Homme Gris
Charles VII
Le Vieux Célibataire
Bon Vin et Fillette
L'Habit de Cour
Ce n'est plus Lisette
L'Hiver
Mon Habit
La Bonne Vieille
La Vivandière
L'Exilé
La Bouquetière et le Croque-mort
Le Bon Vieillard
L'Aveugle de Bagnolet
Les Cartes
L'Orage
Le Violon Brisé
Les Hirondelles
Le Vieux Sergent
Les Petits Coups
Ma Vocation
Marie 204–223; Bobins III, 971 (this copy); Gordon Ray, The Art of the French Illustrated Book, p. 201, no. 134.
Price: $6,500.00