BOUTET DE MONVEL, Louis-Maurice. Jeanne d’Arc.
Paris: E. Plon, Nourrit & Cie, 1896. First edition, trade issue. 47, [1] pages. Oblong quarto. Original publisher’s cream pictorial cloth, decorated in green, brown and gilt with a central laurel wreath, sword, crowns and repeated fleurs-de-lis; blue-grey endpapers.
Written and illustrated throughout by Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel, with 48 remarkable colour compositions, including numerous full-page and panoramic scenes integrated with the text. The illustrations were produced by Ducourtioux & Huillard using a colour relief process; the Morgan Library identifies this binding and format as the original trade edition of 1896.
Jeanne d’Arc became Boutet de Monvel’s defining work. Published in 1896, its success brought him international recognition and the book was rapidly translated into several languages. The Bibliothèque nationale de France notes that it profoundly influenced the subsequent visual representation of Joan of Arc. His restrained palette, strong outlines and unusually broad, cinematic compositions give the book a remarkably modern appearance, particularly in the battle scenes and great ceremonial panoramas.
This example retains the original decorated cloth and its exceptionally attractive sequence of colour illustrations.
Provenance: from a private collection in Cornwall, England, formed around books from the Golden Age of illustration.
