Grandville/Béranger - Œuvres - 1840

Béranger; Grandville. Works.

Paris, H. Fournier the Elder / Perrotin. 1840. 8vo. 461 pages. Half-bound Havana brown leather of the period with a smooth spine richly ornamented. Romantic binding of the period. Fournier, printer.

Illustrated work with a frontispiece and 117 plates hors texte. Some foxing of varying intensity in places (see photos). Rubbing, notably on the spine and the spine’s gilt partially faded. Some old marginal tears, restored in the past. A complete work.

Pierre-Jean de Béranger was a prolific French chansonnier who achieved immense success in his time. After beginning with bacchic and licenseful songs that would have left him indistinguishable in the crowd, he knew how to create a genre of his own: he raised the song to the level of the ode. In works where he treats patriotic or philosophical subjects, he most often knows how to unite, to the nobility of his feelings, the harmony of rhythm, the boldness of imagery, the liveliness and interest of drama. Béranger published his first collection in 1815 under the ironic title Chansons morales et autres; he published three more in 1821, 1825, and 1833. The latter, appearing under the title Chansons nouvelles et dernières, is dedicated to Lucien Bonaparte, for whom he kept a vivid sense of gratitude.

Jean-Jacques Grandville (1803–1847) was a French drawer, caricaturist, illustrator and lithographer. Initially a caricaturist and then an illustrator because of censorship, he enjoyed great success in his lifetime, illustrating essential works such as La Fontaine’s Fables or Gulliver’s Travels. He also contributed to the recognition of the illustrator’s profession by publishing books where image and text are of equal importance, such as Another World (1844), a favorite book of the Surrealists, or The Animated Flowers. His contemporaries, such as Gustave Doré, Gavarni, and Topffer (who admires him), recognize his talent and are often pitted against him on the same works.

A collection of songs by the famous chansonnier, richly illustrated by Grandville, two masters of caricature who meet…