first edition
by BEAUMONT, Charles-Édouard de
Paris: Chez Aubert, 1846. Forty Superb Lithographs by Charles-Édouard de Baeumont
Depicting The Pretty Women of Paris
BEAUMONT, Charles-Édouard de. Les Jolies Femmes de Paris. [The Pretty Women of Paris]. Paris: Chez Aubert, [1846]. [The Pretty Women of Paris]. Paris: Chez Aubert, [1846].
Folio (13 1/8 x 10 inches; 333 x 254 mm.). Forty superb lithographs complete, all mounted on stubs.
A remarkably clean example of this extremely rare title.
Bound by Pagnant ca. 1890 in three quarter red scored calf over red cloth boards ruled in gilt. Smooth spine decoratively tooled and lettered horizontally in gilt, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt. Some minor rubbing to board edges, otherwise near fine.
OCLC lists just three copies in libraries and institutions worldwide - none of them complete: Bibliotheque Geneve, Switzerland (20 plates only); Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris, France (32 plates only); Bibliothek der Universitat der Kunste, Germany (20 plates only).
Charles-Édouard de Beaumont (1821-1888) was one of the great caricaturists and lithographers that illustrated the beautiful pages of Charivari and other fashionable image journals. He produced all the illustrations for the picturesque Revue, Le Diable Amoureux (The Devil in Love) and many of the illustrations for the 1844 edition of Victor Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris. Often criticized for drawing too much inspiration from Paul Gavarni, he published between 1228 and 1273 lithographs in the years 1842 to 1866. In 1879 he co-founded the Societe d'Aquarellistes Francais in 1879, where he exhibited several watercolors.
De Beaumont’s satirical images of gender relations are not always as progressive as this description of the series might suggest. In 1848, after Au Bal Masqué, de Beaumont stopped depicting women in acceptable female roles and instead reconnected them to the role of prostitute. He would also reverse their gender roles to support an antifeminist backlash prompted by a conservative political climate. Out of this same school of thought, de Beaumont authored a book titled The Sword and Womankind that attributes a range of historical calamities to the deeds of wayward women. For example, depictions of women castrating men and enacting other violent acts spread from the belief that women were responsible for the failure of the 1848 revolution.
Beraldi I, 113; Colas, 257; Hiler, p. 73; Lipperheide, 3565; Not in Bobins; Not in Ray.
The Plates:
1. Quelle chance…dire que je n’aurai eu une petite voiture à mes ordres que pendant un mois de ma vie, et ça tombe juste en fèvrier qui n’a que vingt huit jours!...
What luck…to say that I will only have had a small car under my orders for one month of my life, and that just happened in February, which is only twenty-eight days old!...
2. Un monsieur qui cause sérieusement.
A gentleman who talks seriously.
3. Etude sérieuse et au piano de la partition du Larifla, fla, fla.
Serious study and at the piano of the score of Larifla, fla, fla.
4. Envoyée extraordinaire d’un Prince du nord, remise d’une missive et de plusieurs fourrures, prèsens diplomatiques.
Envoy extraordinary from a Prince of the North, delivery of a missive and several furs, diplomatic presents.
5. Moi je n’aimerais que cette rivière en diamans… Diable…voila des gouts peu modestes…filons!...
Me, I would only like this diamond river… Devil… here are not very modest tastes… let's go!...
6. Comment…Céline qui lit un livre de morale!... Eh! mon dieu…il faut bien connaitre un peu de tout!...
How… Céline reading a moral book!... Hey! my god… you have to know a bit of everything!...
7. (Le monsieur lisant.) “Mon cher monsieur Bienaimé, pour solder un petit restant de compte avec ma blanchisseuse, j’aurais besoin ce matin de conq cent francs, si vous pouvez remettre cette bagatelle à Florine ma femme de chambre en un billet de la banque, vous l’obligerez…”
(The gentleman reading.) “My dear Monsieur Beloved, to settle a little remaining account with my laundress, I would need five hundred francs this morning, if you can give this trifle to Florine, my chambermaid, in a note of the bank, you will oblige it…”
8. Prenons garde, la portiere nous écoute…je la soupçonne d’être un agent soudoyé par l’or de l’Angleterre!...
Let's be careful, the portress is listening to us...I suspect her of being an agent bribed by England's gold!...
9. Deux philosophes qui étudient le monde du haut d’un balcon de la rue Notre dame de Lorette.
Two philosophers studying the world from a balcony on rue Notre Dame de Lorette.
10. Voyons mon petit Jules…je ne peux pas être plus mal meublée que Clarisse…rien qu’une pendule rocaille…et tout le reste assorti…
Let's see my little Jules...I couldn't be worse furnished than Clarisse...nothing but a rockery clock...and everything else to match...
11. Madame est sortie…elle est allée au bain… Comment au bain…elle y est déja allé ce matin, de dix heures à midi!...
Madam went out…she went to the bath…How to the bath…she already went there this morning, from ten o'clock to noon!...
12. On rend une petite visite à ce bon monsieur Thèodore.
We pay a little visit to this good Mr. Theodore.
13. Il m’a acheté hier cette robe de cinq louis et demi… Il s’est conduit en parfait gentilhomme…
He bought me this dress for five and a half louis yesterday... He behaved like a perfect gentleman...
14. On en est encore au respect!
We are still respectful!
15. Madame, fut’il laisser entrer ce M’sieu?... Il ne t’a pas dit son nom?... Non…mais il m’a l’air bien comme il faut…il fume du Camphre!...
Madame, was he to let this gentleman in?... He didn't tell you his name?... No... but he looks fine to me... he smokes Camphor!... .
16. Si ma femme me voyait…mais non, il n’y a pas de danger…les rideaux de sa chambre sont soigneusement tirés…ah! ça mais, au fait, pourquoi diable ses rideaux sont-ils si soigneusement tirés!...
If my wife saw me…no, there is no danger…the curtains of her room are carefully drawn…ah! that but, by the way, why the hell are her curtains so carefully drawn!...
17. Mon petit mimi…ne faut zamais dire à un monsieur qui vient voir ta maman: tu m’embêtes…faut touzour lui répondre bien sentiment…comme si c’était papa!...
My little cutie…never say to a gentleman who comes to see your mum: you bother me…always have to answer him with good feeling…as if it were daddy!...
18. Quel dommage que les cheveux ne restent pas toujours de la même couleur, et que ça change avec l’âge!... C’est vrai…tu connais bien la propriétaire d’en face…celle qui se donne vingt neu fans depuis quinze ans…elle a perdu son mari il y à six mois, et elle a eu tant de chagrin que, dans une seule nuit, tout ses cheveux sont devenus noirs!...
What a pity that the hair doesn't always stay the same color, and that it changes with age!... It's true…you know the owner opposite well…the one who has given herself twenty-nine fans for fifteen years…she lost her husband six months ago, and she was so sad that, in a single night, all her hair turned black!...
19. Divertissement matrimonial – monsieur mène madame sur la butte Montmartre pour lui faire contempler le coucher du soleil.
Matrimonial entertainment – Monsieur takes Madame to the Butte Montmartre to make her contemplate the sunset.
20. Parisienne tournant à la Varsovienne.
Parisian turning Warsaw style.
21. [Missing]
22. Costume national français du commencement de décembre à la fin de février.
French national costume from the beginning of December to the end of February.
23. Quant à moi si j’aimais bien quelqu’un…oh! mais là bien!...je m’abstiendrais à des économies, et je serais capable de ne pas dépenser avec lui, plus de trois mille cinq cent francs…par mois!...
As for me, if I loved someone…oh! but that's fine!...I would abstain from saving money, and I would be able not to spend more than three thousand five hundred francs with him...a month!...
24. Une étoile qui file.
A spinning star.
25. Tenue champêtre des Parisiennes pour aller au bois.
Country outfit for Parisiennes to go to the woods.
26. Dames sur le Turf.
Checkers on the Turf.
27. Tiens, je te le vends bien bon marché sit u veux…je me suis donnè beaucoup de mal pendant trois mois à lui apprendre à dire j’aime Frédéric, et voilà que depuis quinze jours mon chérie s’appelle Théobald…c’est gènant…on ne devrait jamais apprendre aux perroquets qu’à dire qu’ils n’ont pas déjeuné!...
Here, I'll sell it to you very cheaply if you want…I went to great lengths for three months to teach her to say I love Frédéric, and now for two weeks my darling has been called Théobald…it's embarrassing …parrots should only ever be taught to say that they have not eaten!...
28. Madame Diogène.
Madame Diogenes.
29. Allons donc? Marguerite, allons donc!... J’fais tout ce que je peux…mais j’savais pas qu’en entrant chez une dame seule, la première chose qu’y fallait apprendre c’était à vernir des bottes!...
So let's go? Marguerite, come on!... I'm doing everything I can... but I didn't know that when I went to a lady alone, the first thing you had to learn was how to varnish boots!...
30. Dire pourtant que me voila en Madeleine…je ne suis peut-être pas bien ressemblante de figure. Ça ne fait rien…beaucoup de personnes vous reconnaîtront!...
To say, however, that here I am in Madeleine…I am perhaps not a good resemblance in face. It doesn't matter...a lot of people will recognize you!...
31. Pélerinage au moulin de la galette, butte Montmartre.
Pilgrimage to the Moulin de la Galette, butte Montmartre.
32. Elle m’écrivait en m’attendant…cette bonne petite…tiens!...elle commence sa lattre par cher Casimir…quand elle sait que je m’appelle Philémon!
She wrote to me expecting me...that good little one...hold on!...she begins her letter with dear Casimir...when she knows that my name is Philemon!
33. Je l’aime un peu…beaucoup…passionément…est-il permis, passionément!...un homme de quarante neu fans et qui a le nez d’Odry…ces marguerite c’est bête comme choux!...
I love him a little...a lot...passionately...is it allowed, passionately!...a man of forty nine fans and who has Odry's nose...these daisies are stupid as cabbage!...
34. Conversation conjugale à huis clos.
Marriage conversation behind closed doors.
35. A quoi sert un Kings – Charles de cinquante écus, - à abimer une robe de deux cents francs.
Of what use is a Kings-Charles of fifty crowns, - to damage a dress of two hundred francs.
36. Oh!...la belle dame don’t mon maître a fait connaissance hier à l’Opéra, qui dine avec du fromage d’Italie!... Après ça c’est peut-être une Napolitaine!
Oh!...the beautiful lady whom my master met yesterday at the Opera, who dines with Italian cheese!... After that she may be a Neapolitan!
37. Le prix courant d’un bouquet.
The current price of a bouquet.
38. C’est une dame…vite mon châle!...
It's a lady...quick my shawl!...
39. Il a l’honneur de saluer Mme. De Ste. Amaranthe et sa nièce.
He has the honor to greet Mrs. De Ste. Amaranthe and her niece.
40. Archicivilisées!
Archivilized! (Inventory #: 06039)
Depicting The Pretty Women of Paris
BEAUMONT, Charles-Édouard de. Les Jolies Femmes de Paris. [The Pretty Women of Paris]. Paris: Chez Aubert, [1846]. [The Pretty Women of Paris]. Paris: Chez Aubert, [1846].
Folio (13 1/8 x 10 inches; 333 x 254 mm.). Forty superb lithographs complete, all mounted on stubs.
A remarkably clean example of this extremely rare title.
Bound by Pagnant ca. 1890 in three quarter red scored calf over red cloth boards ruled in gilt. Smooth spine decoratively tooled and lettered horizontally in gilt, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt. Some minor rubbing to board edges, otherwise near fine.
OCLC lists just three copies in libraries and institutions worldwide - none of them complete: Bibliotheque Geneve, Switzerland (20 plates only); Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris, France (32 plates only); Bibliothek der Universitat der Kunste, Germany (20 plates only).
Charles-Édouard de Beaumont (1821-1888) was one of the great caricaturists and lithographers that illustrated the beautiful pages of Charivari and other fashionable image journals. He produced all the illustrations for the picturesque Revue, Le Diable Amoureux (The Devil in Love) and many of the illustrations for the 1844 edition of Victor Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris. Often criticized for drawing too much inspiration from Paul Gavarni, he published between 1228 and 1273 lithographs in the years 1842 to 1866. In 1879 he co-founded the Societe d'Aquarellistes Francais in 1879, where he exhibited several watercolors.
De Beaumont’s satirical images of gender relations are not always as progressive as this description of the series might suggest. In 1848, after Au Bal Masqué, de Beaumont stopped depicting women in acceptable female roles and instead reconnected them to the role of prostitute. He would also reverse their gender roles to support an antifeminist backlash prompted by a conservative political climate. Out of this same school of thought, de Beaumont authored a book titled The Sword and Womankind that attributes a range of historical calamities to the deeds of wayward women. For example, depictions of women castrating men and enacting other violent acts spread from the belief that women were responsible for the failure of the 1848 revolution.
Beraldi I, 113; Colas, 257; Hiler, p. 73; Lipperheide, 3565; Not in Bobins; Not in Ray.
The Plates:
1. Quelle chance…dire que je n’aurai eu une petite voiture à mes ordres que pendant un mois de ma vie, et ça tombe juste en fèvrier qui n’a que vingt huit jours!...
What luck…to say that I will only have had a small car under my orders for one month of my life, and that just happened in February, which is only twenty-eight days old!...
2. Un monsieur qui cause sérieusement.
A gentleman who talks seriously.
3. Etude sérieuse et au piano de la partition du Larifla, fla, fla.
Serious study and at the piano of the score of Larifla, fla, fla.
4. Envoyée extraordinaire d’un Prince du nord, remise d’une missive et de plusieurs fourrures, prèsens diplomatiques.
Envoy extraordinary from a Prince of the North, delivery of a missive and several furs, diplomatic presents.
5. Moi je n’aimerais que cette rivière en diamans… Diable…voila des gouts peu modestes…filons!...
Me, I would only like this diamond river… Devil… here are not very modest tastes… let's go!...
6. Comment…Céline qui lit un livre de morale!... Eh! mon dieu…il faut bien connaitre un peu de tout!...
How… Céline reading a moral book!... Hey! my god… you have to know a bit of everything!...
7. (Le monsieur lisant.) “Mon cher monsieur Bienaimé, pour solder un petit restant de compte avec ma blanchisseuse, j’aurais besoin ce matin de conq cent francs, si vous pouvez remettre cette bagatelle à Florine ma femme de chambre en un billet de la banque, vous l’obligerez…”
(The gentleman reading.) “My dear Monsieur Beloved, to settle a little remaining account with my laundress, I would need five hundred francs this morning, if you can give this trifle to Florine, my chambermaid, in a note of the bank, you will oblige it…”
8. Prenons garde, la portiere nous écoute…je la soupçonne d’être un agent soudoyé par l’or de l’Angleterre!...
Let's be careful, the portress is listening to us...I suspect her of being an agent bribed by England's gold!...
9. Deux philosophes qui étudient le monde du haut d’un balcon de la rue Notre dame de Lorette.
Two philosophers studying the world from a balcony on rue Notre Dame de Lorette.
10. Voyons mon petit Jules…je ne peux pas être plus mal meublée que Clarisse…rien qu’une pendule rocaille…et tout le reste assorti…
Let's see my little Jules...I couldn't be worse furnished than Clarisse...nothing but a rockery clock...and everything else to match...
11. Madame est sortie…elle est allée au bain… Comment au bain…elle y est déja allé ce matin, de dix heures à midi!...
Madam went out…she went to the bath…How to the bath…she already went there this morning, from ten o'clock to noon!...
12. On rend une petite visite à ce bon monsieur Thèodore.
We pay a little visit to this good Mr. Theodore.
13. Il m’a acheté hier cette robe de cinq louis et demi… Il s’est conduit en parfait gentilhomme…
He bought me this dress for five and a half louis yesterday... He behaved like a perfect gentleman...
14. On en est encore au respect!
We are still respectful!
15. Madame, fut’il laisser entrer ce M’sieu?... Il ne t’a pas dit son nom?... Non…mais il m’a l’air bien comme il faut…il fume du Camphre!...
Madame, was he to let this gentleman in?... He didn't tell you his name?... No... but he looks fine to me... he smokes Camphor!... .
16. Si ma femme me voyait…mais non, il n’y a pas de danger…les rideaux de sa chambre sont soigneusement tirés…ah! ça mais, au fait, pourquoi diable ses rideaux sont-ils si soigneusement tirés!...
If my wife saw me…no, there is no danger…the curtains of her room are carefully drawn…ah! that but, by the way, why the hell are her curtains so carefully drawn!...
17. Mon petit mimi…ne faut zamais dire à un monsieur qui vient voir ta maman: tu m’embêtes…faut touzour lui répondre bien sentiment…comme si c’était papa!...
My little cutie…never say to a gentleman who comes to see your mum: you bother me…always have to answer him with good feeling…as if it were daddy!...
18. Quel dommage que les cheveux ne restent pas toujours de la même couleur, et que ça change avec l’âge!... C’est vrai…tu connais bien la propriétaire d’en face…celle qui se donne vingt neu fans depuis quinze ans…elle a perdu son mari il y à six mois, et elle a eu tant de chagrin que, dans une seule nuit, tout ses cheveux sont devenus noirs!...
What a pity that the hair doesn't always stay the same color, and that it changes with age!... It's true…you know the owner opposite well…the one who has given herself twenty-nine fans for fifteen years…she lost her husband six months ago, and she was so sad that, in a single night, all her hair turned black!...
19. Divertissement matrimonial – monsieur mène madame sur la butte Montmartre pour lui faire contempler le coucher du soleil.
Matrimonial entertainment – Monsieur takes Madame to the Butte Montmartre to make her contemplate the sunset.
20. Parisienne tournant à la Varsovienne.
Parisian turning Warsaw style.
21. [Missing]
22. Costume national français du commencement de décembre à la fin de février.
French national costume from the beginning of December to the end of February.
23. Quant à moi si j’aimais bien quelqu’un…oh! mais là bien!...je m’abstiendrais à des économies, et je serais capable de ne pas dépenser avec lui, plus de trois mille cinq cent francs…par mois!...
As for me, if I loved someone…oh! but that's fine!...I would abstain from saving money, and I would be able not to spend more than three thousand five hundred francs with him...a month!...
24. Une étoile qui file.
A spinning star.
25. Tenue champêtre des Parisiennes pour aller au bois.
Country outfit for Parisiennes to go to the woods.
26. Dames sur le Turf.
Checkers on the Turf.
27. Tiens, je te le vends bien bon marché sit u veux…je me suis donnè beaucoup de mal pendant trois mois à lui apprendre à dire j’aime Frédéric, et voilà que depuis quinze jours mon chérie s’appelle Théobald…c’est gènant…on ne devrait jamais apprendre aux perroquets qu’à dire qu’ils n’ont pas déjeuné!...
Here, I'll sell it to you very cheaply if you want…I went to great lengths for three months to teach her to say I love Frédéric, and now for two weeks my darling has been called Théobald…it's embarrassing …parrots should only ever be taught to say that they have not eaten!...
28. Madame Diogène.
Madame Diogenes.
29. Allons donc? Marguerite, allons donc!... J’fais tout ce que je peux…mais j’savais pas qu’en entrant chez une dame seule, la première chose qu’y fallait apprendre c’était à vernir des bottes!...
So let's go? Marguerite, come on!... I'm doing everything I can... but I didn't know that when I went to a lady alone, the first thing you had to learn was how to varnish boots!...
30. Dire pourtant que me voila en Madeleine…je ne suis peut-être pas bien ressemblante de figure. Ça ne fait rien…beaucoup de personnes vous reconnaîtront!...
To say, however, that here I am in Madeleine…I am perhaps not a good resemblance in face. It doesn't matter...a lot of people will recognize you!...
31. Pélerinage au moulin de la galette, butte Montmartre.
Pilgrimage to the Moulin de la Galette, butte Montmartre.
32. Elle m’écrivait en m’attendant…cette bonne petite…tiens!...elle commence sa lattre par cher Casimir…quand elle sait que je m’appelle Philémon!
She wrote to me expecting me...that good little one...hold on!...she begins her letter with dear Casimir...when she knows that my name is Philemon!
33. Je l’aime un peu…beaucoup…passionément…est-il permis, passionément!...un homme de quarante neu fans et qui a le nez d’Odry…ces marguerite c’est bête comme choux!...
I love him a little...a lot...passionately...is it allowed, passionately!...a man of forty nine fans and who has Odry's nose...these daisies are stupid as cabbage!...
34. Conversation conjugale à huis clos.
Marriage conversation behind closed doors.
35. A quoi sert un Kings – Charles de cinquante écus, - à abimer une robe de deux cents francs.
Of what use is a Kings-Charles of fifty crowns, - to damage a dress of two hundred francs.
36. Oh!...la belle dame don’t mon maître a fait connaissance hier à l’Opéra, qui dine avec du fromage d’Italie!... Après ça c’est peut-être une Napolitaine!
Oh!...the beautiful lady whom my master met yesterday at the Opera, who dines with Italian cheese!... After that she may be a Neapolitan!
37. Le prix courant d’un bouquet.
The current price of a bouquet.
38. C’est une dame…vite mon châle!...
It's a lady...quick my shawl!...
39. Il a l’honneur de saluer Mme. De Ste. Amaranthe et sa nièce.
He has the honor to greet Mrs. De Ste. Amaranthe and her niece.
40. Archicivilisées!
Archivilized! (Inventory #: 06039)
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