Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. Images are beautiful bright and vivid. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> In 1955 Frank Altschul B.A. 1908 donated to the Yale University Art Gallery over 4000 prints by the French nineteenth century artist Guillaume-Sulpice Chevallier known as Gavarni (1804-66). This collection representing virtually the entire graphic work of the artist was an espe- cially appropriate gift for a university art collection since it included numerous trial proofs and various states of each print permitting the comparative study of the artist’s graphic output. Traditionally Gavarni’s importance has been minimized by art historians who usually describe him as a follower of Daumier witty and charming but lacking Daumier’s depth or virility. However Gavarni’s work has been reappraised lately and scrutiny of the prints has led to a new appreciation of Gavarni as a techni- cal innovator in the field of lithography. His prints also provide us with a pictorial chronicle of high life in France in the mid-nineteenth century since Gavarni was one of the most important interpreters of the grace and elegance of Parisian life of that period. When Frank Altschul made his gift to Yale he expressed the hope that “a selection of prints from the Gavarni collection would occasionally be put on display and that above all its existence as an extraordinary historical document bearing on the manners and customs of the nineteenth century in France be drawn to the attention of the entire university.” Although the prints have been Yale’s property for some twenty-five years they have been exhibited but rarely and consulted primarily by specialists. Thus it gives us special pleasure to mount this charming and instructive exhibition selected by Nancy Olson an advanced student in the Department of the History of Art who studied the collection for over a year in preparing this show and catalogue. (LL)