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La débâcle

1889126 x 187

FIRST EDITION
SIGNED AUTOGRAPH ENVOI to Édouard Béliard
Impressionist painter and close friend of Zola

Reserved

Description

FIRST EDITION (tirage courant, sans mention) du 19e titre de la série des Rougon-Macquart.

SIGNED AUTOGRAPH CONSIGNMENT à Édouard Béliard, peintre impressionniste et ami intime de Zola qui inspira le personnage de Gagnière (The Work).

A Édouard Béliard
his friend
Emile Zola

Véritable "illustre inconnu", Béliard, dont on ne trouve aujourd'hui plus qu'une quinzaine de tableaux, participa pourtant aux deux premiers Salons Impressionnistes, exposant 4 puis 8 toiles. Proche de Cézanne et de Pissarro, Béliard évoluait dans les mêmes cercles que Zola : tous deux servirent ainsi de témoins à Marie-Louise Monnier lorsqu'elle épousa l'écrivain, collectionneur et critique d'art Paul Alexis (Le Figaro24 August 1888). Later, Béliard welcomed Zola to Pontoise, ensuring his link with the painters of the new generation. Henri Mitterand points out:

Zola went to school with painters, and not just any painters. [...] This apprenticeship has no equivalent among sociologists, at least those of his time, who lacked this almost professional complicity with artists." (II, p. 120)

Zola encouraged Béliard in his artistic ambitions, but criticised his lack of daring. In his 1876 "Salon" for The Messenger of EuropeZola described his friend as :

"a landscape painter whose distinctive trait is meticulousness. One senses in him the diligent copyist of nature. Having studied it in depth, he has acquired a great solidity of workmanship which makes each of his paintings an erudite and textual translation of nature. [...] The only fault I find with him is his lack of originality. I would like an inner flame to consume his scruples, even if that fire were to blaze at the expense of accuracy."

ON JOINT relié à l'identique , The Work en FIRST EDITION (tirage courant, sans mention) . Dans ce roman, 14e volume des Rougon-Macquart, on identifie aisément Béliard comme le modèle de Gagnière, personnage de peintre mélomane et rêveur qui expose au salon des Refusés

"a pearly grey landscape, a carefully painted bank of the Seine, pretty in tone if a little heavy, and perfectly balanced, without any revolutionary brutality." (p. 156)

Despite these jabs (and a profound disagreement over Proudhon's theories on art), Zola reproached Béliard for having given up painting to devote himself to politics.

Une amitié fidèle continua néanmoins de lier les deux hommes. Ainsi, Béliard, élu maire d'Etampes (il occupera cette position de 1892 à 1900), présidera une réunion publique pour la défense de Dreyfus, et ce malgré qui la foule qui scandait "A bas Zola !"

On joint également, relié à l'identique, La Terre (1911, mention de 161e mille), qui suit L'oeuvre.

 

Paris,Carpenter,1886.2in-12, Bound,126 x 187,[2] ff. - 636 pp. + [2] ff. - 491 pp. .

Reliures de l’époque en maroquin vert (La débâcle) et brun (L’oeuvre), dos à nerfs ornés de filets à l’or, titres dorés, filet doré sur les plats. Couvertures conservées sans le dos. Signets. Dos passés, légers frottements. Papier légèrement bruni, de rares taches. Papier bruni et quelques rousseurs à L’Oeuvre.

Bio

Emile Zola

(Paris: April 2, 1840 - September 29, 1902)

See The Works