Jacques CALLOT: Misère de la guerre & Les Combats de cavalerie - 1632/1636

SOLD

[The Disasters of War - The Cavalry Combats]

Etching. Lieure 1333-1338, 2nd state (of 2); 1313-1314, 1st state (of 2); Meaume 557-563; 595-596.

These 11 etchings have been reunited in a collection offering the Petites Misères de la Guerre together with Les Combats de cavalerie.

The full collection of the Petites Misères de la Guerre contains the 6 etchings by Jacques Callot, with a title page etching by Abraham Bosse. The title is as described by Meaume under number 557 for Callot's works, with the engraved inscription: Misere de la guerre ; faict / Par Iacques Callot. Et mise en / Lumiere par Israel Henriet. / A PARIS. / Avec Privilege du Roy. / 1636.

The titles for the six etchings by Callot were chosen by Meaume and Lieure:

1. [The Camp] (Lieure 1333, Meaume 558); 55 x 115 mm at the borderline.

2. [Attack on Route, also called Theft on the Great Road] (Lieure 1334, Meaume 559); 55 x 115 mm at the borderline.

3. [Devastation of a Monastery] (Lieure 1335, Meaume 560); 52 x 114 mm at the borderline.

4. [Looting and Burning of a Village] (Lieure 1336, Meaume 561); 55 x 115 mm at the borderline.

5. [The Revenge of the Peasants] (Lieure 1337, Meaume 562); 56 x 114 mm at the borderline.

6. [The Hospital] (Lieure 1338, Meaume 563); 52 x 114 mm at the borderline.

All plates are from the second state of two according to Lieure, with numbers and inscriptions. In our collection, plate number 5 is mounted before plate number 2.

The collection also contains two etchings, both described by Lieure under the same title Les Combats de cavalerie. According to Meaume, the two plates are sometimes to be found together with the Petites Misères de la Guerre collection. Each plate is to be found here twice.

• [The Combat with Swords] (Lieure 1314, 1st state (of 2) before number 13, Meaume 595); 45 x 93 mm to the borderline.
• [The Combat with Pistols] (Lieure 1313, 1st state (of 2) before number 14, Meaume 596); 46 x 93 mm to the borderline.

All etchings are printed on laid paper and mounted on sheets of laid paper bound together in a volume.

 Very nice oblong volume, 75 x 140 mm, red morocco, guilt-tooled decoration of three gilded lines on the boards, decorated spine with the title MISERE DE LA GUERRE, gilded dentelle inside, gilded edges, end paper covered with green silk (binding attributed to Derome).

The Petites Misères collection is in good general condition. Each print is trimmed on or 1 mm outside the borderline. One of the proofs in the Combats de cavalerie is slightly damaged, the other three are in good condition. The binding is very well preserved.

Provenance: Lebarbier de Tinan, ex-libris representing a satyr with the motto Faire sans dire (Do and do not speak); Alfred Rossier (1879-1958), collector's stamp (Lugt 4713). Alfred Rossier had inherited from his father an important collection of prints by Jacques Callot, that he proceeded to enrich.

According to Lieure, the Petites Misères de la Guerre were not printed in Callot's lifetime: he allegedly never finished this series, but expanded on the same theme in the Grandes Misères de la Guerre (Lieure 1339-1356), of which five plates take up the same subjects (Le Campement is the only one that is not in the second series).

Israël Henriet bought the six copper plates for the Petites Misères and published them with a frontispiece engraved by Abraham Bosse.