Boutet de Monvel: Painter, Aquqfortist, Designer and illustrator. One of the most influential French illustrators of children's books. Around 1909 using his trademark of clean lines and pale colours he became who one of the most celebrated portraitists of his time. His finest work is La Vie de Jeanne d’Arc (Paris, 1896), for which he provided both text and illustrations. Considered to be the first outstanding juvenile in the modern movement.
Boutet de Monvel. Jeanne d'Arc. Paris Plon Nourrit & Cie. 1896
This is a special copy on Chine. Illustrated with forty-eight original color lithographs by the author, the text and illustrations being printed directly from the stones.
The pageantry of this famous story is played out in pastel colors across the oblong pages to create a stunning panoramic effect.
Boutet de Monvel's delicate line drawings highlighted with flat color washes are exquisite. Gerald Gottlieb writes that this work "marked a high point in the illustration of French children's books at the close of the nineteenth century, and it influenced enormously the picture-book for children in the twentieth century.
Boutet de Monvel's illustrations in, for which he also wrote the text, are considered his finest and most important work." Jeanne's visions link the book to the symbolist tradition. Very light soiling to the wide margins, still a very fine copy of this important book in original cream boards backed in blue-gray cloth. (Pierpont Morgan Library 184; Ray/French 365).
An article published by Scribner's 1896. The article contains twelve pages with six illustrations. (National Hero France Joan of Arc 1896, 1293)
Three examples-> [Page 119] [Page 121] [Page 126]
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Biography
French painter and illustrator. From 1869 he took a course at the De Rudder school of art and in the following year was admitted to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he worked in the atelier of Alexandre Cabanel. He took part in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71) and afterwards studied under Jules Lefebvre, Gustave Boulanger and Carolus-Duran. From 1873 he exhibited at the Salon and in 1885 he created a stir with his Apotheosis of a Scoundrel (or Apotheosis of Robert Macaire; Orléans, Mus. B.-A.), a work imbued with a violently anti-republican spirit. As well as painting, he illustrated children’s literature, beginning with the successful La France en zig-zags (1881). Other collections followed: Vieilles chansons pour les petits enfants and Chansons de France pour les petits français (both Paris, 1883), two books of songs for which he provided illustrations, and Anatole France’s Nos enfants: Scènes de la ville et des champs (Paris, 1887).
In these works, Boutet de Monvel’s delicate and refined draughtsmanship enhanced the authors’ delight in the world of children. He managed to retain the individuality of his subjects, using a modern style that was influenced by Japanese aesthetics. His fame spread quickly: numerous exhibitions were organized in Europe as well as in the USA, and many foreign editions of his works were published.
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Overview
