Wood Engraving Wednesday
Jean-Gabriel Daragnès
Today we present some wood engravings by the French engraver Jean-Gabriel Daragnès (1886-1950), who was once a noted and influential artist, but who seems to have faded into obscurity since his death in 1950. He was instrumental in the revival of the French livre de luxe and was associated with the Émile-Paul publishing house for most of his career. He also founded his own deluxe book publishing firm, Les Editions de la Banderole in 1920 which attracted many contemporary artists, writers, and craftsmen. His sudden death during a routine operation, however, plunged him into obscurity, even after designing, illustrating, and printing hundreds of finely-produced books.
The top six engravings shown here are from Moralités légendaires published by Daragnès's own Editions de la Banderole in 1922; the next five prints are from an edition of Faust published in Paris by Editions de la Roseraie in 1924. Below is a photograph of Daragnès engraving just before his death, followed by another engraving from Moralités légendaires.
These images are inserted in the article "Jean-Gabriel Daragnès: Artist-Craftsman Fallen into Oblivion" by Belgium collector Peter Frank, published in Matrix 23 (Winter 2003), pp. 121-129, and printed at John and Rosalind Randle’s Whittington Press in Risbury, Herefordshire, England in an edition of 800 copies. Our copies of Matrix are another donation from our late friend Jerry Buff (1931-2025).
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