VERNET (CARLE). - CHICOILET DE CORBIGNY... - Lot 41 - Osenat

Lot 41
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VERNET (CARLE). - CHICOILET DE CORBIGNY... - Lot 41 - Osenat
VERNET (CARLE). - CHICOILET DE CORBIGNY (LOUIS-ANTOINE-ANGE)]. Tableaux historiques des campagnes d'Italie, depuis l'an IV jusqu'à la bataille de Marengo ; suivis du Précis des opérations de l'Armée d'Orient, des détails sur les cérémonies du Sacre, des Bulletins officiels de la Grande Armée et de l'Armée d'Italie dans tout le cours de la dernière guerre d'Allemagne, jusqu'à la paix de Presbourg. Paris, Auber ; à la librairie stéréotype, chez H. Nicolle, 1806. Large folio, 55 x 38.5 cm, xvi-122-(2 of which the second is blank)-59-(one blank) pp, green morocco, smooth spine decorated with gilt fillets and fleurons, large multi-framed gilt and cold decoration of fillets, fleurons, palmettes and Greek friezes, with gilt coat of arms in the center, gilt corners on the edges, inner gilt border, mauve embossed paper endpapers, gilt edges; headpieces and corners slightly rubbed, a few discreet stains and small epidermal marks on boards, title leaf detached with marked creases, larger marginal wetnesses on last few leaves, 2 stained text leaves and frontispiece; traces of glue in margins of some plates testifying to the original presence of other serpents (binding from first half of 1830s). SECOND EDITION, PARTLY ORIGINAL. At the origin of this book is the suite of drawings that the painter Carle Vernet produced to immortalize Napoleon Bonaparte's first campaign in Italy (1796-1797), for which he went to the very places where the main events took place (battles, victorious entries, etc.). He exhibited this suite of drawings at the Salon in July 1798. The publisher Auber then conceived the idea of producing a suite of engravings with printed commentary, modelled on the Tableaux historiques de la Révolution française, which he was publishing at the time. To engrave the figures, Auber called on the excellent aquafortist Jean Duplessi-Bertaux, to whom he added various other artists for the landscape finishes. For the text, he called on the pen of the Comte de Corbigny, who had followed Napoleon Bonaparte to Italy for seven months during the Italian campaign. The work was advertised for subscription in September 1798, and publication in monthly instalments began in April 1799, with the engravings exhibited at the Salon in September 1800. Napoleon Bonaparte having meanwhile led a second campaign in Italy, Carle Vernet made another trip there to sketch the scene of the battle of Marengo, an engraving of which was immediately executed and included in the work - publication was not completed until 1801. In 1806, Auber published the present second edition, in three parts: a Précis historique de l'expédition d'Égypte, illustrated with a view of the land battle of Aboukir; an account of the coronation ceremonies of His Imperial Majesty Napoleon-le-Grand, with a double engraved portrait of the sovereigns; and a Précis historique de la campagne d'Allemagne, illustrated with a view of the battle of Austerlitz. ILLUSTRATION OF 30 ENGRAVINGS ON COPPER: 26 plates outside the text, most of them under serpents, and 4 vignettes in the text. INCLUDING 26 COMPOSITIONS AFTER CARLE VERNET: a portrait-frontispiece out of text, 24 views also out of text (most with etched foreground by Jean Duplessi-Bertaux), and a view in the text. In addition, based on drawings by other artists, a double-page copper-engraved map mounted on mitre, and 3 vignettes in the text: the imperial coat of arms, a view, and a double portrait (Monglond, vol. VII, col. 54-56, which does not cite the map). THE COMTE DE CORBIGNY, A FORMER AIDE TO NAPOLEON BONAPARTE IN ITALY. Louis-Antoine-Ange Chicoilet de Corbigny (1771-1811) entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the protection of Condorcet, and from 1793 onwards, he carried out a number of missions, was imprisoned under the Terror and, having met Napoleon Bonaparte in Italy in April 1797, entered the latter's service and remained there until the Peace of Campoformio. Appointed government commissioner in the department of Corcyre (Corfu), then commissioner in the south-west, he was made prefect of Loir-et-Cher in 1800, a post he held until his death. In 1810, having befriended Mme de Staël at the Château de Chaumont, he tried to defend her cause with Napoleon I: instead, he was ordered to send her away and to hand over the proofs of her last work (De l'Allemagne), but was unable to carry out his mission, which earned him a disgrace. Sick and grief-stricken
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