FONTALLARD, Gérard — Aujourd'Hui. Bulletin Des Modes Ridicules

Paris: Lithographie du Passage Choiseul, 1838. One of the Most Delightful French Caricature Series of the July Monarchy The Complete 1838 Aujourd'hui: Bulletin des Modes Ridicules Twelve Magnificent Hand-Colored Lithographs by Gérard Fontallard FONTALLARD, Gérard. Aujourd'hui. Bulletin des Modes Ridicules. Paraissant Chaque Mois. Paris: Lithographie du Passage Choiseul, 15, 1838. The complete first-year run. Twelve large lithographs, one for each month, January through December 1838, each measuring approximately 12 1/2 x 9 5/8 inches (317 x 244 mm.), richly hand-colored throughout and extensively heightened with gum arabic. Each plate individually corner-mounted, and therefore entirely removable and not laid down, within handsome archival window mounts measuring 15 3/4 x 11 7/8 inches (400 x 300 mm.). Housed together in a handsome modern quarter black morocco over black cloth board clamshell case, spine lettered in gilt. The impressions exceptionally fresh, with unusually generous margins; the hand-coloring brilliant and luminous throughout. A magnificent complete suite. An exceptionally rare survival of one of the most charming and visually inventive French caricature publications of the July Monarchy. Issued monthly during 1838 under the title Aujourd'hui. Bulletin des Modes Ridicules, the series comprises twelve extraordinary satirical lithographs lampooning the ever-changing extravagances of Parisian fashion. Rather than illustrating genuine costume, Fontallard created a fanciful world of absurd sartorial inventions - impossible hats, grotesque whiskers, monstrous sleeves, exaggerated trousers, fantastic coiffures, eccentric walking sticks, improbable footwear and innumerable other comic accessories - many supplied with delightfully nonsensical descriptions printed beneath the images. The result is less a fashion journal than an exuberant visual catalogue of bourgeois vanity, fashionable pretension and Parisian eccentricity. Month by month, Fontallard introduces an entirely new cast of grotesques: elongated dandies confronting grotesquely dressed bourgeois; monumental women engulfed by fur, feathers and fabric; absurdly proportioned children; fantastical bathing and nautical costumes; hunters almost overwhelmed by their dogs; musicians in comic disarray; and, finally, an extraordinary December gathering of fashionable types at a concert. Viewed together, the twelve plates form an exceptionally lively panorama of the fashionable year. The publication belongs to the remarkable flowering of French lithographic caricature following the Revolution of 1830. As increasingly severe restrictions curtailed overt political satire during the July Monarchy, caricaturists increasingly directed their wit toward manners, fashion and the absurdities of contemporary social life. Aujourd'hui belongs to this fertile tradition of nineteenth-century French social caricature, transforming the ostensibly respectable language of the fashion plate into sustained visual burlesque. Henri Gérard Fontallard (c.1798-1843) was a gifted caricaturist and lithographic draughtsman whose elegant line and extraordinary talent for comic exaggeration were particularly well suited to the genre. Here the elongated bodies, distorted proportions and fantastical costumes are not merely accessories to the joke: clothing itself becomes the caricature, overwhelming and reshaping its wearers until fashionable society assumes the character of theatrical fantasy. The present suite is especially distinguished by the quality and richness of its hand-coloring. Every plate has been individually colored and extensively heightened with gum arabic, giving a glazed brilliance to hats, ribbons, coats, dresses, feathers and other details. Against the predominantly pale grounds, the greens, reds, yellows, blues and purples retain remarkable freshness and luminosity. The exceptionally generous margins further distinguish the present impressions. Complete annual runs of Aujourd'hui are exremely uncommon. The inherently ephemeral nature of the monthly publication, combined with the visual appeal of the individual lithographs - which encouraged their dispersal as decorative prints - makes the survival of all twelve months together particularly desirable. The present complete suite is further distinguished by its freshness, superb hand-coloring, broad margins and sympathetic archival presentation. A superb complete suite of twelve of the most entertaining French fashion caricatures of the 1830s - at once a parody of the contemporary fashion plate, a comic record of Parisian social pretension, and an extraordinarily decorative achievement in nineteenth-century hand-colored lithography. .