细节
DEBRET, JEAN BAPTISTE. Voyage pittoresque et historique au Brésil, ou Séjour d'un Artiste Français au Brésil, depuis 1816 jusqu'en 1831 inclusivement. Paris: Firmin Didot frères 1834-35-39. 3 vols., folio, 519 x 335mm. (20 7/16 x 13 1/8 in.), contemporary quarter calf, vol. 1 upper cover detached, other inner hinges cracked, plates 2:38 and 3:45 each with a 5-inch marginal tear, entering platemark of the latter, creasing to half-titles and titles of vols. 1 and 2, occasional minor marginal worming, foxing to most plates in vols. 1 and 3, some marginal soiling. FIRST EDITION, half-titles, lithographed author-portrait, 3 lithographed maps, one autograph facsimile leaf and 140 plates containing 153 chalk lithographs after Debret alone or with the Vicomtesse de Portes, ALL WITH CONTEMPORARY HAND-COLORING.
The French artist Jean Baptiste Debret, a student of David's, held the office of court painter to Pedro II of Portugal, Emperor of Brazil, for approximately 15 years before his return to France in 1831, where he began publishing his Voyage pittoresque. The plates and accompanying descriptions, which appeared in 26 fascicles, depict every aspect of Brazilian native and colonial life, including native ceremonies, costumes, recreations, weaponry and crafts (basketry and musical instruments), urban trades and festivals, governmental buildings and royal figures, botanical illustrations of native plants and jungle scenes, coastal profiles and landscapes of Rio, and an eloquent series of scenes showing the brutal existence of black slaves. The few colored copies issued were priced at 416 francs, twice the cost of uncolored copies.
The work was not initially successful, and a large part of the edition remained in sheets in the Didot warehouse in Paris and was eventually sold as waste paper. Finally, "in the thirties, the Brazilian people discovered Debret. A street in the center of Rio de Janeiro was named after him...His book became 'à la mode'; prices mounted sky high and copies became scarce"--Borba de Moraes (1983, p. 252); Sabin 19122.
Provenance: Galeno Martinus de Alverde, inscriptions on half-titles; unidentified nineteenth-century armorial book labels. (3)
The French artist Jean Baptiste Debret, a student of David's, held the office of court painter to Pedro II of Portugal, Emperor of Brazil, for approximately 15 years before his return to France in 1831, where he began publishing his Voyage pittoresque. The plates and accompanying descriptions, which appeared in 26 fascicles, depict every aspect of Brazilian native and colonial life, including native ceremonies, costumes, recreations, weaponry and crafts (basketry and musical instruments), urban trades and festivals, governmental buildings and royal figures, botanical illustrations of native plants and jungle scenes, coastal profiles and landscapes of Rio, and an eloquent series of scenes showing the brutal existence of black slaves. The few colored copies issued were priced at 416 francs, twice the cost of uncolored copies.
The work was not initially successful, and a large part of the edition remained in sheets in the Didot warehouse in Paris and was eventually sold as waste paper. Finally, "in the thirties, the Brazilian people discovered Debret. A street in the center of Rio de Janeiro was named after him...His book became 'à la mode'; prices mounted sky high and copies became scarce"--Borba de Moraes (1983, p. 252); Sabin 19122.
Provenance: Galeno Martinus de Alverde, inscriptions on half-titles; unidentified nineteenth-century armorial book labels. (3)