L’Oeuvre de Zola. 16 Simili Aquarelles par H. Lebourgeois.

AUCTION 65 | Thursday, June 25th, 2015 at 1:00

Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts, Ceremonial Objects and Graphic Art

Back to Catalogue Download Catalogue

<Previous Lot

/232

Next Lot>

Lot 157

(DREYFUS AFFAIR).

L’Oeuvre de Zola. 16 Simili Aquarelles par H. Lebourgeois.

Second series. Although the list of contents includes 25 titles, the volume contains 32 scathing caricatures of Zola in watercolor reproduction. ff. (1), 32. Lightly foxed, few stains, title-page rebacked. Bound into later half-calf over patterned pink boards. Tall 8vo.

Paris: E. Bernard et Cie 1898

Est: $1,200 - $1,800

PRICE REALIZED $1,000

The title is a play on Zola’s 1886 novel “L’oeuvre.” After Emile Zola came to the defense of Captain Alfred Dreyfus in his famous “J’Accuse,” the anti-Dreyfus camp, composed of rabid anti-Semites, pounced upon Zola, portraying him in the most extreme terms. A prime example of this vilification campaign is the present collection of plates by the caricaturist H. Lebourgeois. See J.M. Guieu, “Les Caricatures Antidreyfusardes de H. Lebourgeois” in: Mimesis et Semiosis: Litterature et Representation (1992) pp. 435-46.