René Boylesve storyteller

René Tardivaux (1867-1926), known as René Boylesve, is a novelist remained nowadays in the shadow, while his work and his peers acknowledgement (he was elected to the Académie Française in 1908), place him among the important writers of the late 19th / early 20th century. The Biography Of Modern French Authors, named the "Talvart" after its author's name and a reference for bibliophiles, points :

Novelist of provincial life, it is with a delicate art, all of flexibility and shades, that he has set in charming melancholic pictures, treated in greyness certain types, certain aspects of provincial and bourgeois existences ; he unveiled tender and passionate souls while their simple outsides seemed out of a novel and he depicted them with  talent od a carefull pastellist.

Like some of his colleagues, Rene Boylesve also composed libertine tales in the spirit of those of the 18th century, making as a storyteller entertaining narrations that nevertheless retain his sensitive style. Le Carrosse aux deux lézards verts (The two green lizards Carriage), whose title alone evokes the light-hearted approach, was published in 1921 illustrated with, rare thing for a first edition, compositions embellished with watercolours by George  Barbier, a Art Deco illustrator then at the height of his fame.

Currently, the library offers Loliee:

• BARBIER (George) - Boylesve (Rene). Le Carrosse aux deux lézards verts. Conte. Orné d'aquarelles de George Barbier. Paris, Editions de la Guirlande, 1921, in-4, half-gray binding (Flammarion). First edition illustrated with 52 drawings and diagrams enhanced with watercolors and 8 off-texts engraved and executed in watercolour by George Barbier. Limited to 300 copies. One of the first 25 copies on Japan paper, with a dedication to the literary critic and essayist Gonzague Truc (1877 - 1972).

George Barbier's costume dramas

"George Barbier is one of the most valuable and most significant artist of our time, yet so rich in all kinds of talents and minds of any origin. When our time will be fallen like so many others in the dust of dead things, when today's flame will be ashes and dust, it will just take a few watercolors, drawings of Barbier to revive the same taste and spirit of the years that we are living [...] When I look at George Barbier's costume dramas, I have the impression that the characters of those magical stories come to life before me and tempt my imagination. " Edmond Jaloux - in Preface to Vingt-cinq Costumes pour le théâtre

Costumes created for Lysistrata written by Maurice Donnay
left : Agathos - right : a warrior.

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Barbier (George). Vingt-cinq Costumes pour le Théâtre. Préface par Edmond Jaloux. Paris, Bloch, 1927, in-4, illustrated cover. Rare book illustrated with a portrait engraved by Charles Martin and 25 plates by George Barbier, emphasized with watercolors and silver. Limited edition to 300 copies on blue-gray paper.

Les Amies by Verlaine illustrated by Buchet

Les Amies (girl friends), early work in which Verlaine praises sapphic love, known a rather chaotic publication. First edited to 50 copies under the pseudonym of Pablo-Maria de Herlañes, the collection is censored and all the issues are destroyed. The six sonnets are again published, in 1881, in La Revue Indépendante (The Independent Journal) and finally resumed, in 1889, in Parralèlement (text in french here). It is in this collection that are also the six poems Filles (Girls) who address the theme of brothel.

Because of their erotic and sulphurous dimension, Those poems have been illustrated many times (Bonnard, Bécat, Daragnès ...) The contribution of Gustave Buchet is from the Art Deco period. The Swiss painter has flirted with major artistic movements of his time : Dada, Futurism, Cubism then Purism that leads him to abstraction. This is the line which makes the interest of the etchings that Buchet composes for Les Amies and Filles. The harmony of sober colors invites the gaze to land on the forms. The bodies are all in accurate and fine curves. The style is simple, elegant.

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• [Buchet (Gustave)] – Verlaine (Paul). Les Amies. Filles. Treize pointes sèches rehaussées de couleur et cul-de-lampe par Gustave Buchet. Paris, Le Livre, 1913, in-4, binding by Martine Roy. Edition illustrated with 13 hand color-washed etchings.

A gentle and cubist woman by Gierlowski

A young woman has just committed suicide. Near her body, the husband wonders and relives their past.

Repeating a process used by Victor Hugo in The Last Day of a Condemned, a reference given by Dostoyevsky in the author's note of the book, A Gentle Woman refers to a drama of domestic life. The husband analyzes the facts that lead to this fateful moment when his wife decided to throw out the window. He looks again at the poor girl he married, at misunderstandings, at this day she tried to kill him, and then at the reduction of this women to the status of a submitted wife .

Polish Painter close to the Russian avant-garde and influenced by Cubism, Stefan Gierlowski offers a constructivist interpretation of this tragedy and emphasizes the isolation of the young woman in her marriage.

A Gentle Woman was also adapted into a screen movie by Robert Bresson in 1969.

Currently the Librairie Loliée offers :

Dostoievski -Gierlowski. Une Femme Douce. Traduction d'Ostoya et de G.Masson. Paris, Marcel Seheur, 1927, in-4, broché. Edition illustrated by 10 eaux-fortes etchings by Gierlowski. Limited to 301 copies. One of the first 21 copies on Japan paper.

Art. Goût. Beauté

The First World War has a great influence on the evolution of fashion : the absence of men modifies the place of women in the society. Confronted with new responsibilities, women wish to reach a new life style. Corsets are over ! Dresses are shortened, low-cut in the back, the waistline is not marked anymore. Great creators, as Jean Patou, Jeanne Lanvin, or the English Molyneux, set the style of a profile “à la garçonne”. The hats heavily decorated disappear for bell-hats. The new practice of sports imposes the creation of special suits for tennis, golf or mountain. Accessories come to highlight suits.

In 1925, the great exhibition of decorative arts brings innovation in the post-war fashion. Raoul Dufy draws printed fabrics for Bianchini Ferrier. Sonia Delaunay gives Jacques Heim embroidery patterns, Jean Dunand realizes, for the modeler Agnès, hats made of egg shells arranged like mosaics.
(Source: Encarta)

Published in the Twenties and Thirties, the review A.G.B. (Art, Taste and Beauty) reflects the Art deco period which celebrates the woman emancipation. These “layers of the feminine elegance” incorporate many "pochoir" illustrations, present various columns and a historical chronicle on the feminine fashion through the ages. Articles, written in a distinguished and sometimes obsolete and light style, invite to smile: “Nothing is more exquisite, nothing is more delicious than the fine silhouettes of Parisian women, fitted in light clothes, moving on emerald lawns or under the green foliations of the trees.”

Currently, the Librairie Loliée offers a choice of issues.

Le Paradis Musulman

Important figure of the Art Deco, François-Louis Schmied, born in Switzerland, came to Paris at the beginning of the 20th century and lived there until the middle of the Thirties when he moved to Marocco. He published luxuous illustrated books, of classic literature as Homer's Odyssey, and also orientalist stories. Thus, Le Paradis Musulman by Joseph-Charles Mardrus, doctor born in Cairo who was well-known for his new translation of the Book Of One Thousand And One Nights. Le Paradis Musulman is the third collaboration between the two men after La Création (1928) and Le Livre de la Vérité de la Parole (1929).

Schmied can easily be qualified as a designer because of the importance he give to the layout of the book. He worked, besides, with the designer Jean Dunand. And it's obvious that, with Schmied, the art of illustration becomes decoration : colors are substances, page setting is architecture. The typography is arranged as an harmonious structure, playing with the symmetry. Le Paradis Musulman, is deservedly considered as one his very best works.

Currently at Loliee's Bookshop, you can find, among others, Le Paradis Musulman, 1930, in-4, loose leaves, illustrated cover, with the publisher's folder and case.