Daumier

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DAUMIER, Honore; PHILIPON, CharlesBiblio.com

Cent et Un Robert-Macaire Les

réf. 05957Paris: Chez Aubert et Cie Éditeurs du Musée pour Rire 1839. An Exceptionally Rare Hand-Colored Copy DAUMIER Honoré illustrator. Les Cent et un Robert-Macaire composés et dessinés par M. H. Daumier sur les idées et les légendes de M. Ch. Philipon réduits et lithographiés par MM. ; texte par MM Maurice Alhoy et Louis Huart. Paris: Chez Aubert et Cie Éditeurs du Musée pour Rire 1840 and 1839. First Printing of 101 lithographed plates after Honoré Daumier reduced from the plates published in the Charivari in 1836-1838. Two quarto volumes 10 1/4 x 8 inches; 260 x 203 mm. 8 200 4 publisher's advertisements; 8 204 4 publisher's advertisements pp. With 101 fine hand-colored lithographed plates heightened with gum arabic. Contemporary half dark purple polished calf decoratively ruled in gilt over brown diaper-grain cloth boards. Smooth spines decoratively tooled and lettered horizontally in gilt. Marbled edges. Joints expertly and almost invisibly restored. Some occasional light foxing and browning small light damp-stain in the upper blank margin of a few leaves in each volume. Volume I with small portion 5/8 x 1/4 inch of lower blank corner of second leaf of No. 4 torn away small piece torn from upper blank margin 1/4 x 1/2 inch of first leaf of No. 50. Volume II with a short tear 1/2 inch neatly repaired in the lower gutter of both leaves of No. 53. An excellent copy with superb hand coloring. "Les Robert-Macaire remains Daumier's best-known series.Baudelaire chose it along with Histoire ancienne for specific discussion in his essay on French caricaturists and Carteret accorded it a place in his bibliography. Its contemporary popularity was immense. As an album it was published by Aubert in an edition of 2500 copies a far larger number than for any other series. Yet so persistent was the demand that 600 two-volume sets of reduced copies called Les cent-et-un Robert-Macaire were published in 1839.When politics became a forbidden topic in Le charivari where Caricaturana Les Robert-Macaire first appeared Daumier and Philipon turned to social satire. If they could not attack Louis Philippe directly they could at least show the kind of society that flourished under his gross and venal regime. Taking the flamboyant and florid swindler Macaire from the character that Frédérick Lemaître had created in a hack melodrama called L'Auberge des adrets they showed him and his inseparable companion the dejected and meager Bertrand ranging through all kinds of commercial enterprise in the stock market in the banks in the courts and in dozens of other public settings never failing to find eager dupes. Macaire is equally persuasive in the encounters of private life where no situation finds him at a loss for an appropriate flower of sentiment.Though Daumier's designs are superb in themselves particularly in the variety of supple and telling poses.that he conceives for Macaire and Bertrand they would be incomplete without the unfailing wit and point of Philipon's captions" Ray The Art of the French Illustrated Book pp. 234-236. "These reduced and for the most part reversed copies of Daumier's lithographs apparently drawn by Menut Alophe are greatly inferior to the originals. Unlike Caricaturana the series is not often found colored" Ray The Art of the French Illustrated Book p. 236. Carteret III 187; Ray The Art of the French Illustrated Book 162; Vicaire III cols. 31-32 under Alhoy and V cols. 572-573 under Philipon. Paris: Chez Aubert et Cie, Éditeurs du Musée pour Rire, 1839 unknown

David Brass Rare Books, Inc. · États-Unis14 500,00 $US≈ 12 954,53 €

DAUMIER, Honore; PHILIPON, CharlesBiblio.com

Cent et Un Robert-Macaire Les

réf. 04944Paris: Chez Aubert et Cie 1839. Daumier's Greatest Comic Masterpiece The Exceptionally Rare Original Hand-Colored Quarto Edition One Hundred and One Magnificent Hand-Colored Lithographs DAUMIER Honoré. PHILIPON Charles. Les Cent et Un Robert-Macaire composés et dessinés par M. H. Daumier. Paris: Aubert et Cie 1839. First quarto edition. Original hand-colored issue. Two quarto volumes 10 3/8 x 8 inches; 264 x 203 mm. With 101 magnificent hand-colored lithographed plates all heightened with gum arabic. Contemporary red chagrin over silk paper-covered boards elaborately blocked in gilt all edges gilt. A few text leaves toned occasional scattered foxing largely confined to margins but an unusually attractive copy. The original contemporary hand-coloring remains exceptionally bright and fresh throughout. Few creations in the history of nineteenth-century illustration proved more influential than Robert Macaire. Originally a theatrical rogue invented by Frédérick Lemaître for the melodrama L'Auberge des Adrets the character was transformed by Charles Philipon and Honoré Daumier into the very personification of modern society's corruption speculation opportunism and commercial fraud. Unable to attack King Louis-Philippe directly after the tightening of censorship Philipon and Daumier turned their attention from politics to society itself. Robert Macaire became the perfect vehicle through which they could ridicule bankers lawyers stockbrokers politicians journalists industrialists doctors inventors philanthropists publishers and virtually every profession created by the rapidly expanding bourgeois economy. No enterprise was too respectable to escape his schemes no victim too sophisticated to become his dupe. The result was one of the supreme achievements of French social satire. First issued individually in Le Charivari and later collected in the celebrated Caricaturana the series enjoyed immense contemporary popularity. So great was the demand that Aubert published this reduced quarto edition in 1839 in an edition of approximately six hundred sets. While the lithographs are reductions of Daumier's original folio compositions they preserve the extraordinary vitality of his draftsmanship and remain among the most entertaining illustrated books of the nineteenth century. As Gordon N. Ray observed: "Les Robert-Macaire remains Daumier's best-known series." He further noted that although these reduced lithographs are generally less accomplished than the original folio issues they are "not often found colored." That observation greatly understates the rarity of copies retaining their original contemporary hand-coloring. The present example is distinguished not only by its completeness but by the remarkable freshness of its coloring whose delicate palette and gum arabic highlights considerably enhance the visual brilliance of every plate. More than simply comic entertainment Les Cent et Un Robert-Macaire constitutes one of the great illustrated chronicles of the July Monarchy. Daumier and Philipon expose an age intoxicated by speculation finance political ambition and commercial enterprise yet their satire remains astonishingly modern. Robert Macaire is not merely a nineteenth-century swindler; he is the eternal confidence man continually reinventing himself to exploit every new opportunity offered by society. Few illustrated books better demonstrate Daumier's extraordinary gifts as both artist and storyteller. Across one hundred and one brilliantly conceived scenes Robert Macaire appears in every imaginable disguise - stock promoter publisher lawyer inventor politician philanthropist physician military entrepreneur newspaper editor art dealer and countless others - each episode exposing another facet of bourgeois hypocrisy with inexhaustible invention and comic brilliance. Beautiful original hand-colored examples of this celebrated work are among the most desirable of all nineteenth-century French illustrated books and are encountered only rarely on the market. Paris: Chez Aubert et Cie, , 1839 unknown