Description

FIRST EDITION, with a preface by Jules Claretie, of this magnificent suite of etchings commissioned by the Société de Propagation des Livres d'Art.

Twenty-one fine etchings, one for each arrondissement and one on the cover.

ONE OF THE FIRST 25 COPIES ON JAPON including an additional avant la lettre print of the cover etchingThe following 175 copies are on Hollande.

"He is undoubtedly a Parisian, Mr Béjot, and a Paris fanatic, enamoured of all that Paris has to offer in terms of intimacy, penetrating visions and the living infinite. [...] Twenty arrondissements! Twenty pages from the old Pont-Neuf to the Cours de Vincennes. Streets, suburbs, bridges, quays. The Pont de l'Alma, the Canal Saint-Martin, the Moulin de la Galette. A Paris you don't go to. A Paris that would astonish an inhabitant of the Faubourg St Germain and amuse a boulevardier. A Paris that lives, that swarms, that thinks. And what colour in all that! [...] Eugène Béjot has done a masterly job in giving us an engraved Paris that at least will not perish. Etchings and books - what victorious enemies to the daubers and demolitionists!

This is probably Éugène Béjot's most famous and most accomplished work, and the finesse of its execution, particularly in the depiction of water and rain, is reminiscent of the Japanese prints that were very popular at the beginning of the 20th century.

This suite featured prominently in the exhibition organised by the Musée Carnavalet in 1986:  Eugène Béjot, Paris engraver 1867-1931 .