Ce Que Parler Veut Dire
Paris: Paris: Chez Aubert gal: Vero-Dodat, 1837. Item #07008
One of Frédéric Bouchot's Greatest Comic Suites
Thirty Fine Lithographs Plates
Exploring the Difference Between What We Say - and What We Say - and What We Really Mean
BOUCHOT, Frédéric (1798 - fl. 1830s-1850s), illustrator. Ce Que Parler Veut Dire (What We Say - and What We Really Mean). [Paris: Chez Aubert, Galerie Véro-Dodat, 1837].
Folio (13 1/8 x 10 inches; 333 x 254 mm.). Complete with thirty lithographic plates. Plates signed "Bouchot," with the exception of numbers 22, 27, and 28. The plates generally clean and fresh.
Rebound in modern quarter dark blue cloth over marbled boards with dark blue cloth corners, spine lettered in gilt.
An excellent copy of one of the rarest and most entertaining of all the French caricature albums published during the great age of Romantic lithography.
French Romantic lithography reached its artistic zenith between the 1820s and the 1840s, a period that Gordon Ray rightly described as "perhaps the greatest of all schools in the history of the medium." During these remarkable decades artists such as Daumier, Gavarni, Monnier, and Bouchot transformed everyday Parisian life into a theater of wit, social observation, and visual comedy. While Daumier often relied upon savage political satire and Gavarni became the supreme chronicler of fashionable society, Frédéric Bouchot developed a more intimate and psychologically subtle form of humor, exposing the enormous gulf between polite conversation and genuine thought.
The title itself encapsulates the conceit of the series. Every plate presents two simultaneous conversations. Beneath the polished phrases actually spoken appears the brutally honest sentiment the speaker is secretly thinking. Compliments become insults; declarations of affection conceal greed; offers of generosity disguise selfish calculation; professions of friendship mask jealousy, vanity, ambition, or financial interest. The result is an extraordinarily modern study of social hypocrisy that remains as amusing today as when first published.
Bouchot's achievement lies not merely in the captions but in the remarkable sophistication of the lithographs themselves. Each composition unfolds like a miniature theatrical scene, with carefully orchestrated gestures, glances, entrances, and interiors. Rather than employing grotesque caricature, Bouchot depends upon subtle facial expression and body language, allowing the figures themselves to betray the emotions hidden beneath polite convention.
The plates also constitute an exceptional visual record of bourgeois Paris during the July Monarchy. Fashionable drawing rooms, salons, bedrooms, gardens, and reception rooms are rendered with meticulous attention to furniture, wallpapers, mirrors, draperies, costumes, hairstyles, and domestic decoration.
Issued by Aubert from the celebrated Galerie Véro-Dodat, the series belongs to the same extraordinary artistic milieu that produced the masterpieces of Daumier, Gavarni, Monnier, and Grandville. Unlike most political caricatures of the period, however, Ce Que Parler Veut Dire addresses universal human behavior rather than contemporary events, which explains why its wit remains timeless nearly two centuries after publication.
Frédéric Bouchot (born 1798; died during the Second Empire) was among the leading French lithographic caricaturists of his generation, contributing regularly to Le Charivari, La Caricature, and the Journal pour rire, while also producing numerous independently issued suites for Aubert. Bénézit records that Bouchot was born in 1798 and died during the Second Empire (1852–1870). Although now less celebrated than Daumier or Gavarni, his finest albums rank among the most elegant productions of French Romantic lithography, distinguished by their refined draftsmanship, theatrical compositions, and acute observation of nineteenth-century social life.
Exceptionally rare. OCLC records only three institutional copies worldwide, at the Getty Research Institute, the Bibliothèque Cantonale et Universitaire de Lausanne, and the Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.
Curiously, all three institutional records describe the work as containing thirty hand-colored lithographs, while both Hiler and Lipperheide record only twenty-eight colored plates, suggesting bibliographical uncertainty regarding the original issue.
An exceptionally rare and visually superb masterpiece of French social satire, preserving one of Frédéric Bouchot's most sophisticated and delightful explorations of bourgeois manners, fashionable society, and the endless comedy of everyday conversation.
The plates - all with the headline "Ce Que Parler Veut Dire" (What We Say — and What We Really Mean):
1. Cette toilette vous sied à ravir... / Vous avez l'air d'une borne habillée…
“That outfit suits you perfectly...” / “You look like a dressed-up milestone!”
2. Mon, mon ami, cela serait folie, je ne veux rien... / Si tu ne me l’achête pas, nous verrons...
“No, no, my dear, that would be extravagant—I don’t want anything...” / “If you don’t buy it for me, just you wait...”
3. Vous nous restez, n’est-ce pas?... Allons, acceptez sans façon / Ennuyeux personnages!... Mon dîner va être trop
court...
“You’ll stay to dinner, won’t you?... Come, no ceremony—do say yes.” / “What tiresome people!... Now there won’t be
enough dinner to go around.”
4. Mais sans doute nous lui ferons faire son chemin... / Je t’enverrai aux grandes Indiens, beau cousin de ma femme...
“Of course—we’ll certainly help him make his way in the world...” / “I’ll pack you off to the Indies, my wife’s handsome
cousin!”
5. Vous vous ressemblez comme deux gouttes de lait / Crois ça et bois de l’eau!...
“You’re as alike as two drops of milk.” / “Believe that and you’ll believe anything!”
6. Vraiment, on vous prendrait pour les deux soeurs... / Vieille folle, va!...
“Really, one might take you for two sisters...” / “Silly old fool!”
7. Vous êtes lég re comme une plume! / Ouf quelle charette!
“You’re as light as a feather!” / “Oof! What a cart-horse!”
8. Je suis toujours satisfaite de savoir mon mari avec vous... / J’ésp re bien le brouiller avec une aussi mauvaise
connaissance
“I’m always so pleased to know that my husband is with you...” / “I certainly hope to make him fall out with such a
dreadful acquaintance.”
9. Il ne vous faut plus que l’air de la campagne / Pour mourir...
“All you need now is a little country air.” / “To finish you off...”
10. Monsieur, puisque c’est la volonté de les parens / Puisque vous êtes riche et que je suis pauvre
“Monsieur, since it is my parents’ wish...” / “Since you’re rich and I’m poor.”
11. Ch re amie, signez mon bonheur / Signe ma fortune, vieille folle
“Dear friend, sign for my happiness.” / “Sign over my fortune, you old fool!”
12. Ruinée!... pauvre amie... / Tu ne m’écraseras plus avec ton luxe
“Ruined!... My poor friend...” / “At least you won’t lord your wealth over me any longer.”
13. Enchanté, Madame, de vous rencontrer... / Le diable l’emporte, je la croyais v pres
“Delighted to meet you, Madame...” / “Damn it! I thought she was at Vespers.”
14. Sublime! Admirable! Pyramidal!... / Je n’ai jamais rien entendu d’aussi soporifique
“Sublime! Admirable! Colossal!...” / “I’ve never heard anything so soporific.”
15. Quel bonheur... je ne t’attendais pas sitôt / Comment vais je faire avec Jules
“What happiness!... I wasn’t expecting you back so soon.” / “What on earth am I going to do about Jules?”
16. Je chante, mon oncle, parceque je suis contente / Et que c’est notre signal
“I’m singing, Uncle, because I’m happy.” / “And because it’s our signal.”
17. Verser encore cent mille francs et l’affaire devient superbe!... / J’ai mangé le premier capital et j’en veux un
second...
“Put in another hundred thousand francs and the venture will be magnificent!...” / “I’ve swallowed the first investment,
and now I want another.”
18. Votre fils, Mr le Comte a les plus belles dispositions... / A devenir un crétin comme son p re
“Your son, Monsieur le Comte, shows the most promising qualities...” / “For becoming an idiot like his father.”
19. Votre demande m’honore... assurément... mais ma fille est encore si jeune!... / Tu es trop laid, trop béte et surtout
trop pauvre...
“Your proposal does me great honor... certainly... but my daughter is still so young!” / “You’re too ugly, too stupid, and
above all too poor.”
20. Cette pauvre amie, femme de chambre!! Je vais parter pour toi / Elle me compromettrait, je la ferai chasser
“My poor friend—a chambermaid!! I’ll put in a word for you.” / “She’d compromise me. I’ll have her dismissed.”
21. Le’n’est rien Madame... peine vous ai-je sentie... / Le diable t’emporte, maudit éléphant!
“It’s nothing, Madame... I scarcely felt you...” / “Damn you, you blasted elephant!”
22. J’aurai bien de la peine me consoler de cette perte douloureuse / Me voila veuve et hériti re
“I shall find it very difficult to console myself for this painful loss.” / “At last—I’m a widow and an heiress!”
23. Ne faites donc pas attention, ce n’est rien... / Vieux maladroit il n’en fait jamais d’autres
“Please don’t give it another thought—it’s nothing...” / “Clumsy old fool—he’s always doing things like that.”
24. C’est une bonne fortune pour moi de reconduire madame votre soeur / A l’autre bout de Paris... c’est amusant!
“It’s a great pleasure for me to escort your sister home.” / “All the way to the other side of Paris... what fun!”
25. Oh mon! Oh mon! mon cher... cette fois... je ne souffrirai pas... / Paye! Paye conscrit!...
“Oh no! Oh no, my dear... this time I simply won’t allow it...” / “Pay up! Pay up, you raw recruit!”
26. Oh! Oui, Mamzelle, c’est par par intérêt au moins... / C’est l’chat!... vieux grigoux, sans ton testament je te lacherais
joliment
“Oh yes, Mademoiselle—purely out of concern for him, of course...” / “It’s the cat!... You old miser—if it weren’t for
your will, I’d drop you quickly enough!”
27. Mon cher ami je suis horriblement g né en ce moment... / Ce pr ter c’est donner, je serai toujours g né pour toi,
mon cher...
“My dear friend, I’m terribly short of money just now...” / “To lend is to give—I’ll always be short of money whenever
you ask me, my dear fellow!”
28. Allons adieu... ã bient r / A jamais... je vais vous signaler au concierge, mes petits amis
“Well then, goodbye... see you soon.” / “Never again... I’m going to warn the concierge about you, my fine friends!”
29. C’est drõle, mon pere, je n’ai rien entendu... / C’est lui!...
“How strange, Father—I didn’t hear anything...” / “It’s him!”
30. Comment donc Madame, mais nous r glerons ça quand vous voudrez / Ah! Si j’avais su, je t’aurais fait manquer ta
soirée...
“Why certainly, Madame—we can settle that whenever you wish.” / “Ah! If only I’d known, I’d have made you miss
your evening out!”
Bobins V, 1530; Hiler p. 106 (28 colored plates only); Lipperheide 3574 (28 colored plates only). Not in Colas.
Price: $2,250.00