Description
UNPUBLISHED ALBUM COMPOSED OF 12 ORIGINAL DRAWINGS WITH CAPTIONS AND A MORAL.
Satirical collection, a bit misogynistic, dealing with female moods in full rage. It opens on a fully drawn title page, signed, dated January 1858 and wears this autograph dedication: "to Mr. & Mrs. A. Peduvan". Eleven captioned pencil drawings followtelling the misadventures of a maid, with a toothache, bearing nothing and making hysterical reflections; she'll end up in a cage at the "Cage".nucleus of a zoological garden" in the ""the fierce animal quarter." with this sign: "please don't annoy." The album concludes with this morality: "Park from toothache, if you're a woman, a cook and useless, otherwise park at all and pleasure trips."
Born in Dieulefit in 1828, Charles Combe left to study law in Paris in 1851, in order to take over the family notary's office. Leaving his studies behind, he assiduously frequented museums, art studios and cafés in the Latin Quarter and in 1855 published a few drawings in the Albums for laughs. On his return to Dieulefit, he became close to the Provençal writer and publisher Joseph Roumanille, whom he illustrated in 1868, Lou Mege de Cucugnan and Lou Colera edited by Albert Lacroix, Verboekhoven et Cie and partly translated by Alphonse Daudet. Close to the wealthy art lover and bibliophile Antonin Duval, he illuminates with original drawings many volumes of his library including Les Misérables, Molière's theatre more importantly Gaspard of the night, which he illustrates with 127 original drawings. He will also be one of the first members of the Aquafortist Society, alongside Corot, Jonking and Manet, but his independent character and lack of academism were probably at the origin of his lack of recognition. His frail health did not shed any light on the picture and he died at 49 years old with a popularity all over Provence. Two works published in the 1980s were at the origin of the rediscovery of Charles Combe, and in 2005, the commune of Dieulefit launched an operation to rescue mural paintings executed by Combe in a bourgeois residence, which had belonged to the silk manufacturer and mayor of the town, Charles Noyer.
References :
Marie-Claude Delizy and François Morin, Charles Combe (1828-1877): drawings, illustrations, etchings, decorations, watercolours, pastels, modelling, Grenoble, Imprimerie Guirimand, 1981.
G. Rouy, A cartoonist found : Charles CombeDieulefit, 1982.