SAMAIN ALBERT [Paul Sieffert] - Lot 348

SAMAIN ALBERT [Paul Sieffert] Aux flancs du vase Paris, 1929, in-4 paperback, cover illustrated in color, 161pp. 52 illustrations (25 hors-texts -25 vignettes -1 frontispiece-1 subscription form) in watercolor by Paul Sieffert, copper-engraved and printed in color by hand (not including the title frames and culs-de-lampe). Carteret IV- 356 "Belle publication cotée". Edition of 165 copies, including 150 for members of the Grolier circle and 15 contributor's copies, all on fine vellum. Our copy is in the name of M. Paul Rigaud. Each poem is illustrated with an hors-texte plate in a floral frame, a vignette in the same frame, and a colored cul-de-lampe. OUR COPY INCLUDES, IN A LACED FOLDER, THE SEPARATE EDITION OF ONE OF THE FEW BLACK SUITES ON ARCHES OF THE HORS-TEXTS AND VIGNETTES, DIVIDED INTO THREE OR FOUR STAGES (WE HAVE COUNTED 193 PLATES). Paul Sieffert (1874-1954) studied with Gérôme, Gabriel Guay and Maignan in Paris. He exhibited at the Salon from 1894. He won the first Grand Prix de Rome in 1902 for La résurrection de la fille de Jaïre and was awarded the Diplôme d'Honneur at the 1937 Salon. In 1923, he created the cartoons for the stained-glass windows of the Sacré Coeur parish church in Cognac, dedicated to the First World War. He established his reputation as an artist through his portraits, but above all through his female nudes, most often depicted from the back. This taste for the nude can also be seen in his illustrations of Samain's verses. This edition of Aux flancs du vase, though late, is largely Art Nouveau in style, both in the omnipresence of floral decoration and in the allegorical female representations.