Le Marchand de dessins lithographiques [The Seller of Lithographic drawings]
Lithograph, 237 x 310 mm. La Combe 85, IFF 66.
Very fine impression printed on white wove
paper. A small 10 mm tear repaired in a summary way in the bottom margin (in
the blank part, to the left) and a few small stains in the margins. Impression
trimmed half a millimetre inside the platemark bottom (loss of the tip of the g in Lithographiques)
and small margins on the three other sides (sheet: 257 x 345 mm).
Nicolas-Toussaint Charlet sketched his
favourite subjects, a sapper and a conscript, with a lot of humour, as they
pore over lithographs that represent them in their daily life: marching into
combat, taking care of horses, etc. As for the print dealer, he seems to be
sleeping in his open-air market.
This famous lithograph was printed at
François-Séraphin Delpech's printing workshop (1778-1825). It can be dated to
1818-1819, which makes it a lithographic incunabulum. François-Séraphin Delpech
had his own shop and printing workshop at 3, Quai Voltaire in Paris, which
Carle Vernet depicted in an 1818 lithograph: Imprimerie lithographique de F. Delpech.
Rare (marked 'R' in La Combe's catalogue raisonné).
Price: 2000 EUR // 2300 USD
