About this sheet
This is a set of three original antique hand-colored wood engravings, sold together as one lot, from Augustin Challamel's La France et les Francais a travers les siecles, Paris, circa 1882. The sheets are, in order: Saint-Chamand and Henri IV before 1600; Gentlemen of the Year 1572; Ladies and Gentlemen of about 1584 after Clouet. Three full length portraits from the Gaignieres collection: Antoine de Saint-Chamand, seigneur de Mery, an unnamed lady, and Henri the Fourth before 1600, the men in short cloaks and ruffs and the lady in a stiff farthingale. Three gentlemen of the year 1572 in short cloaks, padded doublets and trunk hose with high ruffs and plumed caps, drawn by Chevignard after the Gaignieres collection. Ladies and gentlemen of about 1584 in the stiff jeweled dress of the late Valois court, taken from a picture by Clouet, called Janet, in the Louvre.
The engraving comes from the costume suite of Augustin Challamel's La France et les Francais a travers les siecles, F. Roy, editeur, Paris, circa 1882. Almost every plate in the series cites its source in the caption, a miniature in the Bibliotheque nationale, a tapestry, a picture in the Louvre or a sheet from the Gaignieres collection, and that habit of citation is what lifts the series above the invented costume books of the same decade. The technique is wood engraving, cut on the end grain so that the block could be locked up with the type and printed together with the text, and the color is applied by hand afterwards over the printed line. The washes in this suite are flat and confident, laid in a small number of strong tones, and they cross the engraved outline here and there in the way that only hand work does.
A portrait of Henri the Fourth taken from a contemporary drawing rather than a state painting is unusual, and the presence of the king makes this the strongest of the Gaignieres sheets in the volume. Fifteen seventy two is the year of the Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre, and these are the clothes worn in Paris that August, which gives an otherwise quiet costume plate a very particular edge. They are three original sheets sold together, and the set is never split. Framed as a set in plain wood or in gilt, the sheets give a hallway, a study or a dining room a deliberate and finished line that a single print cannot.
Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Marked handling soiling along the edges of all three sheets. Scattered foxing in the margins of all three sheets. Slight wear at the corners of all three sheets.
This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
