Author: GAVARNI, Paul [pseudonym of Guillaume Sulpice Chevallier]
Title: Les Débardeurs [&] le Carnaval [&] le Carnaval a Paris
Description: Paris: Au Bureau du Journal Amusant & du Petit Journal pour Rire, 1840. One Hundred and Twenty-Two Hand Colored Lithographed Plates by Paul Gavarni Including the "Stevedores" at the Carnival of Paris Le Carnaval a Paris 1e Série & Le Carnaval a Paris GAVARNI [pseudonym of Guillaume Sulpice Chevallier]. Oeuvres de Garvarni. Les Debardeurs: Le Carnaval: Le Carnaval a Paris. Paris: Chez Aubert, 1838-1843. Folio. All plates measuring 13 3/8 x 10 1/8 inches; 339 x 257 mm. Contents: Les Debardeurs. A complete series of sixty-six hand colored lithographs, of which nine first appeared in other journals (eight in La Caricature (plates 21, 23, and 24 under the title “Souvenirs du Carnaval” and 32, 44, 49, 54, and 61 under the title “Les Débardeurs”) and one (plate 58) in La Mode) prior to the publication of the entire series in Le Charivari from 19 January 1840 to 5 February 1842. [and]: Le Carnaval 1e. Série. Paris: Chez Auberrt, [1838-1839]. First series complete. Twenty-seven superb hand colored lithograph plates all with printed captions. (Armelhault & Bocher 375-397). [and]: Le Carnaval a Paris. Paris: Chez Aubert, [1841-1843]. 29 0f 40 hand colored lithograph plates (missing plate nos. 1, 4, 5, 6, 15, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, & 32). A total of 122 superb hand colored lithographs, all heightened with gum arabic. Housed together in the original quarter scored calf over mottled blue boards clamshell case with original blue cloth ties. “In [Les Débardeurs]..a series of sixty-six lithographs published in Le Charivari between 1840 and 1843, Gavarni depicts a variation on the most famous of the costumes he designed for the masquerade balls, the débardeur [stevedore]. The braided wig, loose shirt, black velvet trousers fastened with brass buttons and tied with a fringed sash are derived from the working costume of the longshoreman or stevedore, who unloaded the barges that traveled up the Seine to Paris. As Nancy Olsen points out [in Gavarni: The Carnival Lithographs], the majority of Gavarni’s carnival lithographs reflect his interest in the small groups that drift away from the crowd as a consequence of the romantic liaisons that preoccupied many of the participants at a masked ball. Intrigue was the name of the gave, and the information being conveyed in this scene comes in all probability from an agent provocateur” (Beatrice Farwell, The Charged Image: French Lithographic Caricature 1816-1848, p. 88). “This is the most considerable of the several series of lithographs devoted by Gavarni to the balls which were a passion with him. He was an organizer and patron of the more elegant, and he found the popular balls at the Opera and elsewhere an attractive subject for his designs. Théophile Gautier, who believed that at this period Parisian balls had virtually ‘effaced the former carnival of Venice,’ called Gavarni ‘their depicter and historian.’ As dancers throw themselves into their round of pleasure, ‘a man stands with his back against a pillar; he watches, he listens, he observes.’ And the following day on stone ‘he lends his own wit to all the masks, perhaps stupid in themselves; he sums up in a profound word the chit-chat of the foyer; he translates into a pleasant legend the hoarse excitement of the hall.’ (Quoted by Lemoisne, I, 120)” (Ray, The Art of the French Illustrated Book). Such elements have made Gavarni's carnival lithographs among his finest, most famous and desired works of art. There was another similar title by Gavarni, Le Carnaval. Paris: Chez Aubert, [1838-39] which had twenty-seven completely different plates This series of plates by Gavarni is quite rare; only three copies are listed in OCLC, and it has not sold at auction in the last forty-two years. In the nineteenth century, the Paris carnival was the most extravagant among the European carnivals. It would last for several days and consist of masked balls, both private and public, street processions and feasting during which vibrant street scenes, costumes and decorated floats would be on display. Armelhault & Bocher, (Les Debardeurs) 486-542, 307-309 (plates 21, 23, and 24), 259-263 (plates 44, 49, 32, 54, and 61), and 1223 (plate 58); (Le Carnaval) 375-397; (Le Carnaval a Paris) 251-257, 398-422, 1232, 1709-1711. Ray, The Art of the French Illustrated Book, 154. .

Keywords: Books in French Color-Plate Books Caricatures Books in French Caricatures French Caricature


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