Paris, Au Bureau du Journal pour Rire, n.d. [1854].
Large oblong 4to [258 x 330 mm] of (1) title and 24 numbered lithographs. Bound in ochre half buckram, flat spine, green morocco lettering piece. Contemporary binding.
First issue of this suite of 24 lithographs executed after Gustave Doré’s drawings.
Rahir, Bibliothèque, p. 404; Exposition rétrospective Gustave Doré, p. 9.
This entire set of plates, engraved by Vayron, includes a caption full of humor and irony turning the characters into animals. We find: the Lions, the Small Lions, adult Lions (alias fool Lions), Lionesses, the Rats (of the opera), the Rats (from sewers), the painter Rats (alias daubers), etc. These caricatured characters compose the Ménagerie parisienne according to Gustave Doré.
“Gustave Doré (1832-1883) is probably one of the most prodigious artists from the 19th century. When he was 15, he started a caricaturist career, then turned into a professional illustrator – which will bring him an international celebrity – before taking up all he domains of creation: drawing, painting, watercolors, engraving, and sculpture.
Doré’s great talent is also involve in various genres, from satire to history, providing by turns gigantic paintings and more intimate canvas, shimmering watercolors, virtuoso washing, incisive lines, engravings, odd illustrations, or even sculptures that could be baroque, comical, monumental, enigmatic…”
Musée d’Orsay, Exposition « Gustave Doré, L’Imaginaire au pouvoir. »
Pleasant copy without foxing, preserved in its contemporary half-binding.
Provenance: Maurice Gras’s ex libris on the paste-down.
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