Ireland - Island of Ireland - Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, Ulster, Connacht, Leinster, Munster; Denis Horvath - Grands Reportages n°93 - Irlande - carte originale illustréé - 1981-2000

Illustrated map of Ireland, drawn and painted by hand by Denis Horvath, French illustrator-cartographer, for the magazine Grands Reportages (no. 93, July-August 1989).

This is an original handmade maquette — the drawing maquette that served for printing the map in the magazine. It is neither a print, nor a reproduction, nor a proof: it is the map itself, in a single copy.

MULTI-LAYER PRODUCTION

Before digital cartography, a press map was built by overlaying several separate sheets, joined at the photogravure stage. This lot preserves these layers:

- The geographic background sprayed with an airbrush, preserved and photographed alone: relief built up with greens and yellows, coastline cut by hand, lakes and rivers repainted with a brush on a blue field. No text, no vignette: the first state of the map, before any assembly.
- The toponymy film, lettering transfer, up to the province names composed letter by letter in an arc across the territory (ULSTER, CONNAUGHT, LEINSTER, MUNSTER).
- The vignette film, bearing the motifs painted by hand and then cut out and laid down one by one.
- A transparent overlay film, still in place and hinged on the board, as well as the locating crosses drawn in pencil in the margin that kept everything aligned.

CONTENT OF THE MAP

The entire island of Ireland — Republic and Northern Ireland — with its four provinces, its counties and its main towns, from Donegal to Cork and from Galway to Dublin. The Giant’s Causeway is rendered in the French legend.

About thirty hand-painted vignettes punctuate the map: the Rock of Cashel, Johnstown Castle, the monastic ruins of Fermanagh, the round towers of Meath and Clare, the Laois dolmen, the Turoe Stone and its spirals, the dry-stone huts of the Skelligs, the Cliffs of Moher, the Donegal cottage, the Celtic cross, the horses of Kerry, a trawler and the stained glass window of Saint Brigid.

ATTRIBUTION

The verso bears the cartographer’s workshop seal, “Denis HORVATH – Illustration,” and his production handwritten annotation “IRLANDE – GR93 – DOSSIER CARTE.” The workshop’s eight-digit French-format telephone number, abandoned in October 1996, situates the realization well before that date.

provenance

Archives of Grands Reportages’ editorial offices, held by a former magazine contributor at the time these production documents were being discarded. This map belongs to a set of plates created by Denis Horvath for the magazine’s country dossiers between 1989 and 1990.

CHARACTERISTICS

Cartographer: Denis Horvath
Publisher: Grands Reportages, no. 93, July-August 1989
Date: 1989
Board dimensions: about 50 x 35 cm (French format)
Technique: mixed technique — airbrush, hand drawing and painting on films, transfer lettering, stacked transparent films, board-mounted
Coloring: colors applied by hand at the time of creation
Back: blank, except for the workshop seal and the handwritten production annotation described above
Origin of text: French toponymy, composed in transfer lettering by the cartographer
Edition: unique original piece, unsigned on the recto

CONDITION

Good. Light wear typical of an atelier document: mounting tape yellowed at the top edge of the board, pencil transfer marks in the margin, slight warping of the transparent film, smudges along the board edges. No losses, no tears in the image. These marks are visible in the photographs.

SHIPPING

Sold unframed. Shipped flat, protected between several rigid supports, with tracked and insured delivery.