Fine Press Friday!
Our Limited Editions Club Shakespeare series keeps giving us more artists to look for in our collection! This week we found Carmen, by Prosper Mérimée (1803-1870) illustrated by French-born American painter and illustrator, Jean Charlot (1898-1979), published by the Limited Editions Club, New York, in 1941 in an unstated limited edition of 1500 copies signed by the artist. We learned about this edition because of the post we did a couple of weeks ago on Charlot’s illustrated edition of Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part 3.
Mérimée’s 1846 novel about the eponymous Romani beauty, is most popularly well known from Georges Bizet’s famous opera of the same name, which is based on Part III of Mérimée’s story. The action is set in 1830s Andalusia, but Jean Charlot’s illustrations gives the story a Mexican flavor. Charlot worked mainly in Mexico and was a member of the Mexican Muralist Movement, sharing a studio with Fernando Leal who is considered to be one of the first Mexican Muralists. It was after the Mexican Revolution (1910-1917) that the new government sought to use murals to educate the public on social justice issues. From a young age, Charlot was fascinated by Mexican art and pre-Columbian artefacts and his mature work reflects this fascination, including in these illustrations.
The thirty-seven multi-layered color lithographs, which Charlot drew directly on the printing matrix, feel like miniature frescoes. Charlot laid down quick marks to color large areas of the image, which layer in overlapping color to give the image a lively energy. One could easily imagine one of the illustrations used as a page header as a mural above a doorway, signaling a transition. Or, one of the larger full-page illustrations as a mural on a large wall. I am taken by how these illustrations function well in both architectural and book spaces. The book is architecture.
The lithographs were printed by Charlot’s friend Albert Carman in New York and the type is 18-point Linotype Bodoni printed by Aldus Printers in New York. . The paper was made by the Worthy Paper Company, was watermarked with the name of the book and the covers are wrapped in a vibrant hand-blocked color silk.
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– Teddy, Special Collections Graduate Intern