Folies Gauloises
Doré
Paris. Au Bureau du Journal Amusant. 1859
Sold
First edition with a fine association (presentation in sepia ink on initial blank leaf): 'à Mon ami Nadar / G. Doré'.
Félix Nadar (1820 - 1910) was the pseudonym of Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, the photographer, caricaturist, publisher, journalist and pioneering balloonist. Nadar and Doré had both been co-contributors to French satirical magazines in the 1840s such as Le Charivari and Doré provided illustrations for Nadar's own Le Petit Journal pour Rire. Nadar is also noteworthy for donating his photographic studio space for the Impressionists' first exhibition in 1874.
Each lithograph represents a period in French history.Doré begins with the barbarian hordes - the Gauls - observing a human sacrifice, and proceeds with a 13th century Inquisition (demonstrating that water-boarding is by no means solely a recent phenomenon), a 15th century tournament, a ball during the reign of Henry III, the 1695 premiere of a drama by Racine (with the spectators represented by a forest of wigs), the 'edifices' of fashionable women's wigs in the court of Louis XVI, ending with 1830 and the Romantic era.
'This dazzling survey of French manners and costume through the ages was the last of Doré's albums. It is marked by a solidity of conception and a sophistication of outlook to which he hardly aspired in his earlier collections of lithographs'. (Ray).
[Ray 245].
Félix Nadar (1820 - 1910) was the pseudonym of Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, the photographer, caricaturist, publisher, journalist and pioneering balloonist. Nadar and Doré had both been co-contributors to French satirical magazines in the 1840s such as Le Charivari and Doré provided illustrations for Nadar's own Le Petit Journal pour Rire. Nadar is also noteworthy for donating his photographic studio space for the Impressionists' first exhibition in 1874.
Each lithograph represents a period in French history.Doré begins with the barbarian hordes - the Gauls - observing a human sacrifice, and proceeds with a 13th century Inquisition (demonstrating that water-boarding is by no means solely a recent phenomenon), a 15th century tournament, a ball during the reign of Henry III, the 1695 premiere of a drama by Racine (with the spectators represented by a forest of wigs), the 'edifices' of fashionable women's wigs in the court of Louis XVI, ending with 1830 and the Romantic era.
'This dazzling survey of French manners and costume through the ages was the last of Doré's albums. It is marked by a solidity of conception and a sophistication of outlook to which he hardly aspired in his earlier collections of lithographs'. (Ray).
[Ray 245].
Oblong 4to. (265 x 360 mm). The complete set of 20 monochrome lithographs by Gustave Doré, each signed in the stone with printed caption, printer's address (Lith. Vayron, 51, r. Galande, Paris) and numbered 1 -20. Contemporary red straight-grained half-morocco over marbled boards by Pagnant with his discreet stamp to front free endpaper verso spine with title gilt and gilt decoration, marbled endpapers, a.e.g.
#40122
