[Rarebooks] fa: EMILE BERNARD: Oeuvres de Francois Villon - 1 of 254 Copies w/ 240 Woodcuts - Vollard 1918

[ArCh]

Auction ends Sunday, March 26. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

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Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


Francois Villon; Emile Bernard (illus.): Oeuvres de Francois Villon. [Paris:] Ambroise Vollard, 1918. First edition thus. Folio (33.5x25.5 cm; 13x10 in.), page-gatherings loose as issued in stiff decorated wraps, original glassine jacket, salmon cloth-covered chemise and slipcase (measuring 36x30 cm.; 14.25x11.5 in.); [10], 432, [10] pp.; printed in red and black; woodcut illustrations, decorations and initials. Number 194 of an edition of 254 copies.

Villon’s works profusely illustrated with ca. 240 wood engravings by Bernard, 68 of which are full-page. Original glassine jacket is torn and creased on the front panel and spine ends, original wraps with a tear to the top of the front joint, some bumping and wear to the extremities; contents with intermittent offsetting from the engravings (occasionally rather heavy), a few small spots, else very clean and fresh. An unopened copy (meaning the leaves are still joined together in 4-page gatherings, as issued), hence unread. Slipcase with some wear to the extremities and sunning.

In the first part of the twentieth century, the French art dealer and publisher Ambroise Vollard issued a number of finely printed limited edition art books, commissioning illustrations from some of the leading artists of the time, including Pierre Bonnard, Georges Rouault, Georges Braque, Marc Chagall, Raoul Dufy, and Pablo Picasso. Emile Bernard (1868-1941) came from an earlier tradition than many of Vollard’s other collaborators. A Post-Impressionist painter, he was a contemporary and close friend of Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne and Toulouse-Lautrec. Some of Bernard’s early Symbolist work from 1880s-90s was an enormous influence on Gauguin and Van Gogh. He later rebelled against the avant-garde he had helped create, turning to classicism and teaching at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.