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Gavarni : Masque et Visages: Oeuvre Nouvelle de Gavarni, Physionomie Parisiennes. (vol1)
Masque et Visages: Oeuvre Nouvelle de Gavarni, Par-Ci Par-La (Vol2)

: Paulin et le Chevalier, Paris, 1857

Original Morrocco boards with tooled gilt rules , lettering and elaborate design. Four raised bands in 5 compartments. Silk end papers. , Spine is worn but otherwise a very good copy with clean and crisp plates. , Folio (450mmx310mm), Each volume illustrated with 50 black & white plates.
Spine is worn but otherwise a very good copy with clean and crisp plates.


Paul Gavarni, the French caricaturist, born in Paris. He began life as an engineer's draughtsman, but soon turned his attention to his proper vocation as a cartoonist.

In his lithographs he portrayed the most striking characteristics, foibles and vices of the various classes of French society. The letterpress explanations attached to his drawings were always short, but were forcible and highly humorous, if sometimes trivial, and were admirably adapted to the particular subjects. The different stages through which Gavarni's talent passed, always elevating and refining itself, are well worth being noted. He began his artistic career with the study of Parisian manners, more especially those of the Parisian youth.

“Second only to Daumier in reputation, Gavarni was preferred by many who responded to his ingratiating drawing and often erotic undertones more than to Daumier’s relentless caricature and biting commentary. Although Gavarni’s drawing style is very different from Daumier’s, it is equally sophisticated, and far kinder to its human subjects. Gavarni forgives human foibles; Daumier condemns human folly”. (Farwell, 83)
Later on “around 1857, Gavarni added one hundred new lithographs to Masques et Visages, in two series: Par-ci, Par-là (Here and there) and Physionomies Parisiennes (Parisian Physiognomies)
With Masques et Visages, we are introduced to the third of Gavarni’s change in style. He modified the way he drew and adopted a new approach: the characters are no longer represented in full length, but invariably from the waist up, and in bigger dimensions. The characteristic of these drawings, and their flaw in the long run, was to be done from memory. Gavarni was no longer the cheerful young man who roamed the world, the workshops, the theaters, the dance halls, always immersing himself in direct observation: he was an already aging man, who lived in seclusion, overwhelmed with work, master of his trade, and whose prodigiously stocked memory provided any human type he needed at first request. As for the technical side, he was better than ever.” (Old Book Illustrations)
, Farwell, 83; Old Book Illustrations

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