Beschreibung:

DELACROIX, Eugène, (1798-1863), illustrator]. GOETHE, Johann Wolfgang (1749-1832). Faust . French translation from the German by Albert Stapfer. Paris: Goyer & Hermet, 1828. 2 o (425 x 284 mm). Letterpress half-title, title and text. (Some insignificant paper flaws at corners). 18 lithographic plates on chine appliqué mounted on wove paper, including frontispiece portrait of Goethe, by Motte after Delacroix. (Plate facing page 38 with two small marginal losses, one just crossing left of image, the other beneath title, plate facing page 99 with similar tiny marginal loss). Contemporary red half morocco, red boards, the flat spine gilt. Provenance : armorial bookplate; booklabel with monogram "JAB." A FINE COPY OF THE DELUXE ISSUE ON CHINE APPLIQUé OF "THE MOST SIGNIFICANT ILLUSTRATED BOOK OF ITS TIME" (Ray). It was not the literary merit of Faust that inspired Delacroix to illustrate the work, but rather a performace of the play he attended in London in 1825. Originally intended for publication as an album by Charles Motte later that year, the lithographs were not issued together until three years later with Albert Stapfer's translation. Through preliminary circulation, Delacroix used the lithographs "to astonish the middle class," intending them as a manifesto for Romanticism in art. According to Ray, "the book met with the expected hostile reception ... Traditional critics were outraged that he was given to exaggeration." The one early viewer who did appreciate their greatness, however, was Goethe himself, who upon first seeing them in 1826 wrote, "One must acknowledge that this M. Delacroix has a great talent, which in Faust has found its true nourishment ... I have to agree that M. Delacroix has surpassed the scenes of my writing." Ray further credits the later livres de peintres with establishing the work as the first link in their own tradition. The present example is of the deluxe issue, with variant states of the plates. Delteil 57-74 (57, state 3; 58, state 2; 59, state 2; 60, state 3; 61, state 1; 62, state 1; 63, state 2; 64, state 2; 65, state 2; 66, state 3; 67, state 2 "très rare"; 68, state 3; 69, state 3; 70, state 2; 71, state 3; 72, state 3; 73, state 2; 74, state 2); Ray French 143.