Donna Dickenson]]> Books]]> [Jean-Baptiste Dubos]]]> Books]]> Ministère de Travaux Publics]]> Pamphlets]]> Marcel Haedrich]]> Books]]> New Description of Paris, first published in French in 1684 and then translated into English in 1687, offered to lead its readers ‘directly to such Sights as they most Fancie’. This engraving depicts a section of the city from the Île de la Cité, one of two remaining natural islands in the Seine.]]> Germain Brice]]> Books]]> Germain Brice]]> Books]]> Edme Arcambeau]]> Books]]> Auguste Logerot]]> Books]]> Paris Impérial wrote: ‘Now that gas has reached the little streets of the big city, night truly is no more, because darkness has been banished.’ One who haunted the nocturnal delights of Paris was photographer Brassaï, real name Gyula Halász (1899–1984), who produced his Paris de Nuit (Paris by Night) in 1933. This work featured sixty images that depicted the darkest corners of Paris. As he stated: ‘My constant aim was to make people see an aspect of daily life as if they had discovered it for the first time.’ Here is his Notre-Dame from the windows on the Île Saint Louis, and a glimpse of the Boulevards at the Palace de l’Opéra.]]> Brassaï]]> Books]]> Le Spleen de Paris (or Petits Poèmes en prose) were written as a ‘pendant’, a completion of his more famous Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil), published in 1857. Published posthumously in 1869, they intended to capture ‘the beauty of life in the modern city’ with subjects urban: an old woman; a dog; windows, mistresses; poor people hanging around eateries. In his preface to this limited edition, Aleister Crowley, the translator, calls Baudelaire (1821–1867) ‘the most divine, the most spiritually minded, of all French thinkers.’ Baudelaire’s ‘modernity’ influenced a whole generation of writers: Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud and Stéphane Mallarmé; he remains an important French poet.]]> Charles Baudelaire]]> Books]]> L’Étranger carries one of the best opening lines in the literary world: ‘Mother died today’ (‘Aujourd’hui, maman est morte’ in the original). It was first published in a run of 4,400 copies in 1942. Translator Stuart Gilbert called the book The Outsider, rather than the more common The Stranger. The French Algerian-born Camus (1913–1960) paints a sunny pessimism of man and his lot: ‘In our society any man who does not weep at his mother’s funeral runs the risk of being sentenced to death… I only meant that the hero of my book is condemned because he does not play the game.’ The year 2017 marks the 75th anniversary of the first printing of Camus’ work.]]> Albert Camus]]> Books]]> Picasso]]> Sketches]]> ___]]> Photographs]]> Calligrammes (1918), a series of poems that incorporated words, letters and phrases into complex visual collages, like concrete poetry. Subtitled ‘Poems of Peace and War 1913-1916’, many of them – like his ‘Letter to André Billy, 9th April 1915’ - reflected his experiences while an infantryman during WWI. ‘Harden Old Heart’ was not published in his lifetime. The poet who wrote ‘I love art so much, I have joined the artillery’ died on 9 November 1918, the day the Armistice ending the War was announced.]]> Guillaume Apollinaire]]> Books]]> Notre Dame de Paris; more commonly known as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. First published in 1831, the backdrop of the love story between Esmeralda and Quasimodo is the famous Gothic cathedral. Hugo (1802-1885) was a preservationist who was vitriolic towards ‘vandals’ who knocked down old buildings in the name of progress. Indeed, the language of architecture permeates the novel. The British artist Quentin Blake (b. 1932) designed this striking cover image.]]> Victor Hugo]]> Books]]> Contes drolatiques that would appear in ten volumes. In reality, he finished 30 stories, publishing under the title, Les Cents Contes drolatiques, in 1832, 1833, and then 1837; the other 70 remain fragmentary pieces. Although best known for his large novel sequence La Comédie Humaine, it was to his Droll Tales that he looked for literary immortality: ‘The Droll Tales will constitute my principal title to fame in days to come’ (letter to Madame Hanska, August 1833). They have been illustrated by many artists, including Gustave Doré and Mervyn Peake. Here Jean de Bosschère (1878–1953), the Belgian artist, offers his interpretation on Balzac’s Rabelaisian tales.]]> Honoré de Balzac]]> Books]]> Caligula, his verse play about the tyrannical Emperor (reigned 37-41 AD), was written in 1837. In a somewhat ‘modern’ move, he had a trained horse on stage playing the role of Incitatus, the Emperor’s favourite. The 20 performances in 1837-38 did not save the drama. The play failed; the horse was hissed at. In this 1838 printing ‘Stella’ is played by the actress ‘Mlle Ida’, who was Ida Ferrer, later Dumas’ wife. Dumas went on to pen classics such as Les Trois Mousquetaires (1844) and Le Comte de Monte-Cristo (1844). In 2002, Dumas was finally re-interred in the Panthéon, alongside his literary fellows Victor Hugo and Émile Zola.]]> Alexandre Dumas]]> Books]]> Astérix. Written by René Goscinny (1926-77) and illustrated by Albert Uderzo (b. 1927), Astérix was first published in the new comic, Pilote, in October 1959. It was so popular that the first of many stand-alone albums, Astérix Le Gaulois, was published in 1961; by 1977, 55 million albums had been sold. Somewhat bereft after Goscinny’s death in 1977, Uderzo was unsure whether to continue with the little Gaul and his fellow villagers, but he did and only retired from drawing and writing Astérix in 2011. To date, 36 Astérix books have been published and translated into more than 100 languages.]]> R. Goscinny]]> Comic books]]> Paul Wescher]]> Books]]> École des Beaux Arts on account of her gender, Claudel attended the Académie Colarossi in Paris, in the 1880s. She then set up her own atelier, with fellow female artists to share costs. Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), came into her life as a teacher in 1882, and after he recognised her abilities, Claudel became one of his assistants. She also became Rodin’s muse and eventually his lover, but their relationship was troubled; Rodin refused to leave his de facto partner, Rose Beuret. In 1913, after showing signs of paranoia and delusional behaviour for several years, Claudel’s family committed her to an asylum. She was still incarcerated when she died 30 years later.]]> Odile Ayral-Clause]]> Books]]> John Rewald]]> Books]]> École des Beaux Arts in Paris, he worked as an architectural ornament sculptor but continued to produce his own artworks. Rodin’s style eschewed the more idealised, neo-classical portrayal of the human form for a more naturalistic approach, something that did not initially endear him or his artwork to the ‘establishment’. Despite this, and accusations of surmoulage – a form of plagiarism – Rodin cemented his reputation as an artist of renown by 1900. He worked in plaster, bronze, clay, marble, and on paper; his most famous works are ‘The Kiss – Le Baiser’ (marble; 1889) and ‘The Thinker – Le Penseur’ (bronze; 1904) both housed in the Musée Rodin which is still open in Paris today.]]> Georges Grappe]]> Catalogues]]> Cravate frisée, the ‘Curly Cravat’.]]> François Levaillant]]> Engraving]]> Coucou éclatant. Lesson may have known the bird’s Māori name – Pīpīwharauroa – but he left it off the engraving.]]> René Primevère Lesson]]> Engraving]]> Nestor meridionalis), a large species of parrot of the family Strigopidae. In his book, the correct habitat of New Zealand is given (p. 627).]]> René Primevère Lesson]]> Engraving]]>