Giraudoux, Jean.
Promenade avec Gabrielle.
Paris: Editions de la Nouvelle Revue Française (NRF), 1919.
WITH A SUITE ON CHINE OF SIXTEEN PENCIL-SIGNED ORIGINAL HORS-TEXTE COLOR LITHOGRAPHS BY LABOUREUR.
AN OUTSTANDING COPY OF LABOUREUR'S EARLY ART-DECO MASTERPIECE.
A stunning livre d'artiste, with 16 ORIGINAL COLOR LITHOGRAPHS BY LABOUREUR. The only book illustrated by Laboureur with color lithographs.
The text--the heretofore unpublished original version of the eighth chapter of "Simon le pathétique"--is lithographed in blue, in facsimile of Giraudoux's manuscript.
The brightly colored lithographs are among Laboureur's earliest book illustrations: they were executed in 1919, although the book was not completed until 1924.
From a total edition of 185 copies, this is one of 20 hors-commerce copies printed on extremely fine, thick Arches laid paper.
THIS COPY, EXCEPTIONALLY, HAS A SUITE OF THE 16 ORIGINAL COLOR LITHOGRAPHS, PRINTED HORS-TEXTE ON CHINESE PAPER AND INDIVIDUALLY SIGNED AND NUMBERED (2/15) BY THE ARTIST IN PENCIL.
4to. Elegantly bound in three-quarters morocco over marbled boards by Devauchelle. Top edge gilt, other eges uncut. Original wraps and backstrip bound in. Tiny traces of wear to extremities of binding, else FINE AND BRIGHT, WITH THE LITHOGRAPHS ALL IN PERFECT CONDITION.
Sylvain Laboureur 776 (vol. II, pp. 339-342 and color plate 17), pointing out that this is the only book which combines Laboureur's illustrations with lithographed text. He does not cite any examples of signed suites.
In The Fleuron (II, 325), Paul Istel writes: "It is hardly a book, only a light album of twenty pages, the reproduction of an autograph manuscript adorned with sixteen colour-lithographs. Here the decorative idea is entirely new and the effect entirely successful: both text and engraving have been drawn from the stone. The text of Giraudoux, in a facsimile of handwriting, is printed in blue, the color of fountain-pen ink, and Laboureur has created (and designed directly with the brush) landscapes in gay and fresh colours, where the same blue throws its dominant note--the ensemble being an adorable concerto in which the impalpable fantasy of the writer and the impressionism of the artist are most happily united."
EXTREMELY RARE.
