Fashion Plates
Paul Gavarni (1804-1866), Fashion Plates (a collection of 12), lithographs, c. 1840, as published in Le Charivari, with the letterpress verso. [Some are signed in the plate, the address of the gallery Aubert is noted, most are noted as by Gavarni] Several with customs stamps (Royal Seine) verso. In generally good condition, with folds (generally four folds per sheet, as the newspaper was folded), the full or near full sheets, the images c. 8 x 6 1/2, the sheets c. 13 1/2 x 8 1/2, unmatted, to be issued loose.
Very good impressions of these fascinating fashions and models.
Paul Gavarni (the nom de plume of Hippolyte Guillaume Sulpice Chevalier) started his career as an engineering draftsman, but turned to making portraits of fashionable French woman and men, and there found his metier – in fact, he was surely the leading illustrator of French fashion in his time. He moved from directing the Gens de Monde to the journal Le Charivari, where these illustrations appeared (9 are part of a series called Revue Fashionable). He later moved to caricature and book illustrations, showing a less cheerful and more cynical side, and in the last stage of his career became interested in scientific endeavors, such as aerial navigation, which were not nearly so successful as the fashion plates, such as those in this collection, created much earlier in his career.
