Pedagogie

France, 1935. Remarkable manuscript of original illustrated and collaged teaching materials created by a French art teacher between the wars. In her opening outline, Simonne Tacher aims to do more than teach her students the fundamentals of line, form, and perspective: she hopes to develop “observation, mémoire visuelle, imagination, goût et esprit créateur.” The materials collected here, intended for use with students between the ages of ten and sixteen, represent multiple aspects of art education: geometry, architecture, draftsmanship, portraiture, art history, anthropology. Tacher illustrates a unit on the cylinder with a series of glossy magazine (truncated) advertisements, from Gitanes cigarettes to Munitions Gévelot shotgun shells. A drawing note on mushroom anatomy inspires a five-page illustrated narrative about a “grande famille de champignons” confronted with human foragers in their forest home. A unit on the oval is the occasion for a visual deconstruction of the “section dorée” in portraits painted by Leonardo, Raphael, and Titian. A section of fragmented and collaged features, faces, and masks from around the world adds a distinctly modernist note, as do the “aspects perspectifs” of the newly completed Empire State Building and 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The manuscript ends with a series of original artworks by Tacher, presumably designed to serve as models for class assignments. Although Tacher’s manuscript is not dated, the product advertisements she incorporates all date from the mid-1930s. An ambitious and compelling survival, representing a modern approach to elementary art education. Unbound manuscript, measuring 12.5 x 10 inches: 110 leaves, most single-sided. Text and illustrations executed in ink, pencil, and paint, with collaged elements and mounted photographs and drawings. Many leaves tissue-guarded, some materials affixed with metal brads. Housed in stiff card portfolio with metal brads and linen spine, cover titled “PEDAGOGIE” in black and brown ink, brown grosgrain ribbon ties. Light soiling and shelfwear to portfolio, occasional smudge to text block. (Inventory #: 1003997)