Le vagabond.

Lithographies en couleurs par Steinlen. Paris : Société des Amis des Livres, 1902. Small folio, magnificently bound in full crushed morocco over bevelled boards, gilt rules and fillets, spine in compartments with prominent raised bands, lettered and ruled in gilt (a little rubbed on the bands), full morocco doublures with gilt rules and morocco fillets, further marbled paper endpapers, all edges gilt, gilt-lettered morocco collector’s label for Lucien Tissot-Dupont, preliminary and terminal blanks inserted by the binder, lithographed wrappers bound in, pp. 52; (6), illustrated with 51 colour lithographs by Theophile Alexandre Steinlen (1859-1923), housed in a morocco lined and trimmed card slipcase (edges rubbed and split along bottom edge), an exquisite work. Printed in an edition of only 115 copies.

The only book colour lithographs by Steinlen, illustrating Maupassant’s masterpiece of French realist literature. Le vagabond describes the tragic descent of Jacques Randel, a skilled 27-year-old carpenter who becomes a social outcast due to economic hardship and rejection as an ‘outsider’.

Provenance :

Lucien Tissot-Dupont, heir to the French luxury goods manufacturer S.T. Dupont, his book label to preliminary blank.

References:

Carteret, L., Livres illustrés modernes, 1875-1945, IV, p. 272 (Très belle publication […]. L’une des meilleures [illustrations] de l’artiste)

Ray, G. N., French Illustrated Book, n° 340, pp. 440-446

Crauzat, E. de, Steinlen. L’oeuvre gravé et lithographié, 1913, n 519