I just bought a Gavarni illustration in antique bookshop but can't Identify the subjects, could you help me?
Le Charivari N°44 - 9ème année. Costumes d'Humann - Chapeaux de Desprey, par Gavarni.
Hello and congrats on the purchase!! This appears to be a fashion plate/advertisement for the Parisian clothier Humann [first name unknown], who loved working with Gavarni in the late 1830s-1840s. This blog has a number of examples of Gavarni drawing for Humann.
Will I ever find more information about Humann, besides his business address at No. 83 rue Neuve des Petis-Champs? Signs point to no, but he was name-dropped by Octave Uzanne in his biography of Gavarni:
The great tailor of the period, Humann, acknowledged [Gavarni's] masterly skill in the difficult art of clothing his figures in the long redingote with enormous of lapels, the high collar, the multitudinous folds of the cravat, the long pleated skirts spreading out gradually over a figure extraordinarily graceful and well-knit.
I tried to find more information about the tailor Humann (who is not noteworthy enough to make French Wikipedia), and found another reference to his work with Gavarni in the 2018 book Graphic Culture: Illustration and Artistic Enterprise in Paris, 1830-1848 by Jillian Lerner:
Perhaps better known are the many explicitly promotional plates Gavarni made for the sought-after Parisian tailor Humann, rue Neuve-des-Petits Champs; there were at least thirty published in Le Charivari between January 1839 and November 1842. Gavarni delineates stylish gentlemen in sleek coats, trousers, and dressing gowns attributed to Humann, alongside chemises, hats, and furnishings credited to other purveyors. However, it is interesting to note that these promotional plates were not necessarily drawn from physical models or drawings provided by the tailor. More likely, the arrangement involved Gavarni drawing the dapper, rakish, well-tailored figures he was known for in his work as a sketcher of Parisian types, and later simply adding the tailor's name to the plate. In this way viewers would be encouraged to associate Gavarni's elegant graphic style with the tailor's fine made-to-measure garments.
This print looks like your recent acquisition—Yale University Art Gallery dates it 1840.
