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VERKAUFT

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Paul GAVARNI (sous le speudonyme de) Sulpice Guillaume CHEVALIER

Album amicorum, suite de dessins

S.n., s.l. (vers 1846), in-4 à l'italienne (21,5 x 27 cm)., relié.

GAVARNI, Sulpice-Guillaume Chevalier, known as Paul. Album amicorum, a set of drawings. N.p., n.d. [but c. 1846], no author given. 27 x 21.5 cm, bound.

 

AN ITALIANATE ALBUM OF 52 ORIGINAL DRAWINGS in pen and ink by Paul Gavarni.

Bound in full green blindstamped shagreen in the Romantic style, bearing the gilt initials 'SC' (for Sulpice Chevalier, Galvani's real name) on the upper cover and 'PD' (for Paul Delaroche) on the lower, gilt filet to inside edges. 50 leaves, of which 12 on brown paper, a.e.g. Foxing. A few tears, a few careful restorations.

48 drawings (14 x 18.7 cm) mounted on to larger paper leaves (overall size 20.5 x 26 cm), with rice-paper guards and 4 drawings executed directly on the album leaves; of which 50 in black ink and mine de plomb, two heightened with wash (a mountainous landscape with figures and "V'lá un nez qu'a coûté cher á metre en couleur"), and two others in pastels and charcoal.

Titled in black and red ink with the legend "Gavarni", bearing also the autograph signature of Paul Gavarni in charcoal.

- 48 drawings in black ink done by Gavarni for Le Diable á Paris: Paris et les Parisiens. Illustrations Les Gens de Paris par Gavarni (Paris, J. Hetzel, 1845-1846), of which 46 bearing autograph captions in black ink.

- 3 landscapes: two in black ink (one heightened with wash), the third in charcoal and pastels.

- 1 portrait of a soldier in charcoal and pastels.

 

The two charcoal and pastel drawings are juvenilia; the landscape is comparable to Gavarni's Paysage des Pyrénées (1827), now with the Department of Drawings in the Louvre (inv. RF 31377).

Paul Gavarni (1804-1866), or Guillaume-Sulpice Chevalier to give him his true name, started publishing drawings in the press in the 1830s; he very quickly found success, and began working with La Mode, L'Illustration, and L'Artiste, as well as La Caricature and Charivari - two of the most famous satirical journals, which helped greatly in establishing his name.

Gavarni was soon illustrating works such as Paris au XIXéme siècle (Paris, Beauger, 1839), Les Français peints par eux-mêmes (Paris, Curmer, 1840-1842), Le Museum parisien by Louis Huart (Paris, Beauger and Aubert, 1841) and even the series Physiologies. As well as these books, which are among the most sought-after illustrated books of the Romantic period, we should also mention the very handsome Diable á Paris, published in parts by Jules Hetzel, a master of that genre.

Illustrated with 212 woodcuts, of which 208 after Gavarni (and four after Bertall) and 800 vignettes within the text itself, Le Diable á Paris brings together the work of celebrated writers such as George Sand, Honoré de Balzac, Stendhal, Théophile Gautier, Charles Nodier and Gérard de Nerval. Its goal? To paint a picture of Parisians - their mores and fashions - in subtle sketches, some journalistic, some literary, but both often humorous: young working class women, courtesans, the middle classes, actors, artists and tradesmen are all caricatured within its pages. It is to that most Parisian of illustrators, Gavarni himself - his style at once subtle yet redoubtable and possessed of a highly spirited sense of irony - that Hetzel entrusted the task of lampooning the foibles of his contemporaries. These drawings are an excellent complement to the texts they illustrate - the publisher having given the artist total freedom in his choice of subjects; and Paul-André Lemoisne, Gavarni's biographer, considers them to be deeply personal.

Forty eight of the fifty one drawings contained in the present album are studies for Le Diable á Paris. Highly precise and very vibrant, they bear witness to the different stages of Gavarni's working process: first, he would put his drawings down on paper in mine de plomb and ink before transferring them onto wood with a very fine pencil; they would then be cut directly into the wood by the engravers. The few variations between our drawings and the engravings are to do with the captions (eight with changes, two with additions) and to the number of figures (an additional figure has been added in five of the engravings). These studies already show all the incomparable qualities of Gavarni's flair: the study of obscurity and shadows, the expressivity of his bodies and faces, his attention to costume and taste for social satire, as well as a heightened sense of composition even in his working sketches.

 

The album comes from the personal collection of Paul Delaroche (1797-1856), most probably having been a gift from Gavarni himself. The binding, which he commissioned, bears the initials 'SC' (for 'Sulpice', one of Gavarni's Christian names, and 'Chevalier', his real surname) on the upper cover and 'PD' (for Paul Delaroche) on the lower. Delaroche, whose work was praised by Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly, Charles Blanc, Alexandre Dumas and Théophile Gautier, was one of the most highly sought-after history painters at the time and a noted engraver; he was a member of the Institute and, while teaching at the École des Beaux-Arts, he produced a finely executed work of Romantic or anecdotal subjects, which enjoyed huge success. We don't know much about the relationship between the two artists, but Gavarni did make a portrait etching of the painter, a rare example of his work in aquatint (Armelhault, Bocher L'Oeuvre de Gavarni. Lithographies originales et essays d'eau-forte et de procédés nouveaux. Catalogue raisonné, Paris, Librairie des Bibliophiles, 1873, p. 595, no. 3; on the same plate is a portrait of Balzac. A trial print of this etching is held at the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, inv. 1955.74.3E). They most likely met in some literary circle or other, for instance the La Bohéme du Doyenné, which Gavarni frequented from time to time. In any case, a drawing by Gavarni was included in a collection owned by descendants of Delaroche (Couturier Nicolay sale, Paris, Drouot, 27 April 1994, no. 157). This album, a gift from Gavarni to Delaroche, is therefore a precious and moving witness of his admiration for the Master.

 

A superb collection of original drawings by Gavarni for his masterpiece, Le Diable á Paris - Les Gens de Paris, with a prestigious provenance. 

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