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The appearance of the black box

Histoire de Monsieur Lajaunisse

1839260 x 165 mm

ORIGINAL EDITION of Cham's very first album.
A copy in contemporary colours and in a very attractive romantic binding.

500 

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ORIGINAL EDITION of Cham's very first album. 

Following in Topffer's footsteps, Cham produced numerous albums of stories and caricatures over a period of forty years, and worked with humorous and satirical newspapers.
The story of Mr Lajaunisse  is considered to be the first album to feature completely blacked-out panels: two black panels show the bedroom in which the character lies down after blowing out his candle. According to Camille Filliot, "Chis intrusion of the abstract into the midst of an image-based narrative is a way of questioning the medium, pointing the finger at the way it works and confusing the reader." (Comic strips in the century of Rodolphe Töpffer, 2011). Gustave Doré did the same in 1854, in The History of Holy Russia, where the black box represents the "tenebres of antiquity". In 1882, at the Salon des Arts incohérents, Paul Bilhaud continued with canvas, Negro fight in a tunnel, before the publication of the famous Primo-avrilesque album (1897) by Alphonse Allais, the high point of the humorous use of what came to be known as monochrome.

A copy in the period colours and in a very attractive romantic binding..
Uncommon in this condition.

Paris,Published by Aubert,1839.Oblong, Bound,260 x 165 mm,35 pp.

Bound in contemporary green half-maroquin, smooth spine, gilt title, gilt fillets and fleurons. Handwritten title page on first board. Bound without title page and catalogue. Small tear in margin of page 1. Light spotting.

Bio

Cham

Amédée de Noé

(Paris:

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