Btp 18-2015 (May) by Serge Plantureux

Transmission 18-2015 Discovery of an unknown portrait p. 13

Contents of Transmission 18-2015 : “Van Gogh” Vincent van Gogh in Conversation, 1 Paul Gauguin, 3 Émile Bernard, 4 Félix Jobbé-Duval, 5 Arnold Koning, 6 André Antoine and the Théâtre-Libre, 7 Jules Antoine and Art et Critique, 8 A fur cap, a pipe and one button, 11 Exhibition at 96 rue Blanche, 12 Letter to a neighbor, 13 The Man with a Top Hat, 15 An impressive collection, 16 Two covers you have missed

Uploaded at 3.15 pm 4th May 2015

The e-bulletin presents the discovery of an unknown portrait :

Vincent Van Gogh in conversation with Paul Gauguin and Émile Bernard This lot is part of Romantic Agony Summer auction (June 19th & 20th) Daguerreotypes, calotypes, autochromes, documentary photography, Public auction in Brussels on Friday June 19th, 2015 at 2 p.m. Second day on Saturday June 20th, 2015 at 2 p.m Exhibition times : Number Eighteen of the weekly bulletin has been uploaded on monday, 4th May at 15:15 (Paris time). All the bulletins are available on our site:

www.photoceros.com / BTP Upcoming uploads and transmissions : Monday 11h May Monday 18th May, Monday 25th May, Monday 1st June To subscribe to the bulletin in .pdf format, easily printable, also to send remarks and suggestions:

studios@robespierre.fr Phone (10am-5 pm) : (+33) 1.43.60.71.71 Correspondance in English, French, Dutch, Russian, Italian, Spanish, German, Turkish.

Paris : 5, rue du Perche, near the Picasso Museum From the 03/06/2015 to the 08/06/2015, 10 am to 6 pm Brussels : 40, rue de l’Aqueduc, near the Horta museum From 12/06/2015 to 19/06/2015, 10 am to 6 pm auction@romanticagony.com + 32.25441055 The auctions will be online with Drouot live

Updates :

www.photoceros.com Serge Plantureux Rhinocéros & Cie Studios Robespierre 71 rue Robespierre 93100 Montreuil

Transmission 18-2015

Week 18 : May 4 - 18, 2015

Jules Antoine (1863-1948) Vincent Van Gogh in conversation with Paul Gauguin, Félix Jobbé-Duval, Émile Bernard, standing : André Antoine, slightly aside, probably Arnold Koning. Paris, 96 rue Blanche, about December 1887

Attrib.

Melanotype, direct reversed positive with sensitized collodion on waterproofed cardboard, 88x119 mm, stamped “Gautier Martin breveté”, recto (non-reversed image on next page). This exceptional reversed photograph is one of the rare known pictures of Van Gogh. Sitting around him: Paul Gauguin and Emile Bernard, wearing the ‘bragou-berr”, a traditional garment from Pont-Aven where they’ve stayed. Sitting next to Gauguin, the painter Félix Jobbé Duval, an old friend who told him about Pont-Aven. Paul Gauguin is in Paris for a few weeks from mid-november 1887 until the 26th of January. Émile Bernard, Félix Jobbé-Duval, André Antoine and Arnold Koning were also present during this short period. Vincent Van Gogh leaves for Arles only in February 1888.

On this occasion, Vincent Van Gogh accepts to pose with his friends. He has put his curious fur hat at the center of the table. He wanted to look his best in Paris and had his whole dentition remade sometime earlier. Only after this “cosmetic surgery” did he start his series of self-portraits. Standing aside, wearing a hat, is probably Arnold Koning, who had just finished his exhibition with the painters of the Petit Boulevard.

They meet in the courtyard of the 96 rue Blanche; where André Antoine, founder of the Théâtre-Libre had invited the pioneering young artists to exhibit their works in his new rehearsal hall. Three artists have replied positively to the appeal published in the Cri du Peuple the preceding 7th of September: Georges Seurat, Paul Signac and Vincent Van Gogh for whom this exhibition is the culmination of his sojourn in Paris.

This intimate and moving collodion, found in the archive of a Parisian bookdealer of 1920’s, reveals a group of friends in conversation.

Provenance: Ronald Davis, librarian of Myriam de Rothschild (see page 15).

They are bringing a revolution to the world of Art. 1

AA 6 CHARACTERS VVG ÉB

FJD PG

Transmission 18-2015

Week 18 : May 4 - 18, 2015

PAUL GAUGUIN (1848-1903) Self-portrait with palette, 1893-1894 Oil on canvas, 71x92 cm, private collection. Paul Gauguin meets Émile Bernard for the first time in Pont-Aven in August 1886. In November 1887, after a tiring trip to Panama and the Martinique with Charles Laval, he returns to Paris, quite sick, and visits the exhibition organized by Vincent in the Restaurant du Chalet, avenue du Clichy (painters of the Petit Boulevard: Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh, Bernard, Anquetin and Koning). Gauguin already has 15 years of painting under his belt when he visits this exhibition. Vincent proposes 2 of his paintings an in exchange for one of Gauguin’s. Gauguin meets Vincent and Theo several times during the winter of 1887. Theo buys a few paintings and ceramics from Gauguin. By the time he leaves for Arles, Vincent has become his friend, Paul addresses him with a “my dear Vincent”. At the beginning of the new year, on January 26th, Gauguin chooses Pont-Aven to paint and recover from this malaria he has contracted in the Martinique (he is very tired and weak). 3

Transmission 18-2015

Week 18 : May 4 - 18, 2015

[ÉMILE BERNARD (1868-1941)] “Celui-ci c'est Bernard”, caricature, Paris, 1889 Ink on paper “Le synthétisme, un cauchemar !” attributed by Schuffenecker to Paul Gauguin, probably by Émile Bernard, folio 18, in the “Album Gauguin” (Paris ; musée du Louvre département des Arts graphiques). The youngest of the group, he meets Paul Gauguin in Pont-Aven through Émile Schuffenecker during the summer of 1886 while he is touring Brittany by foot. He often crosses Vincent’s path at Père Tanguy’s shop (Julien Tanguy, 18251894) and they regularly go for walks from Montmartre to Asnières, then an enjoyable resort where his parents had a house. Émile is the real great friend, the fellow of Vincent in the year 1887. They exhibit together, first in the café Le Tambourin, managed by the former model Agostina Segatori ,then at the Restaurant du Chalet with the painters of the Petit Boulevard. Toward the end of 1887, Émile will try to convince Vincent to join him on a trip to Pont-Aven where he wants to paint again. He also tries to convince him to give up his exhibition with Signac and Seurat in the rehearsal hall of André Antoine, 96, rue Blanche, in vain.

Transmission 18-2015

Week 18 : May 4 - 18, 2015

FELIX JOBBÉ-DUVAL (1821-1889) Photographic portrait in 1879 No vintage print found, from an institutional scan. Painter from Carhaix (Finistère), Felix has been travelling through Brittany since the 1860’s and knows the Gloanec Hostel really well. He is also a close friend of Père Tanguy, Breton like him, and an old Communard. He is wearing the badge of the Legion of Honour on the left side of his jacket, awarded in 1861. Important confirmation that the image was reversed due to the photographic process, a direct positive image. Gauguin subleased him a floor of his Pavilion on the rue de Carcel in 1880. Jobbé Duval also witnessed the birth of his first son, Jean-René Gauguin in 1881. Jobbé-Duval passed away on April 3rd, 1889. The Paris administration named after him a street opened in 1912: “La rue Jobbé-Duval est une voie publique située dans le 15e arrondissement de Paris. Longue de 243 m, elle débute au 40 rue Dombasle et se termine au 23 rue des Morillons.”

Transmission 18-2015

Week 18 : May 4 - 18, 2015

ARNOLD KONING (1860-1945) Photographic wedding portrait, 1893 No vintage print found, from a family website scan (wedding picture with Maria Catharina Heeley). The “young Koning” as Vincent nicknamed him, arrives to Paris in September 1887. He instantly exhibits with Vincent and the group of the Petit Boulevard in the Restaurant du Chalet. The Van Gogh brothers show sympathy to this young painter recently arrived from the Netherlands. After Vincent’s departure for Arles, Theo would even host Koning in the rue Lepic, from March 14th to May 30th 1888, on the same bed where his brother had slept: “Tu rendrais sûrement service à notre ami Koning en le laissant rester avec toi... En cas que tu voudrais le prendre – et il me semble que ce serait un débrouillage pour lui, seulement il faudrait clairement s’expliquer avec le père de façon que tu n’aies pas de responsabilités, indirectes mêmes. — Si tu vois Bernard dis-lui alors que jusqu’à présent j’ai à payer plus cher qu’à Pont-Aven mais qu’ici je crois qu’en restantc en garni avec les bourgeois il doit y avoir des économies à faire, ce que je cherche, et dès que j’aurai vérifié je lui écrirai ce qui me paraîtra la moyenne des dépenses.” (Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh. Arles, on or about Friday, 24 February 1888).

a line to say farewell. Well, old chap, I’ll often think about our being together in Paris, and I’m sure we’ll hear from you when you’re back in Holland. It’s very good that you’re returning hale and hearty. If you should come back next year, come and have a look around here too. I wish you could see the colour here.]” (Vincent van Gogh to Arnold Koning, Arles, Tuesday, 29 or Wednesday, 30 May 1888).

“Amice Koning, van Theo vernemende dat gij naar Holland terug gaat wilde ik u een woordje schrijven om afscheid te nemen... [My dear friend Koning, learning from Theo that you’re going back to Holland, I wanted to drop you

Dear friend Koning did not answer.

Transmission 18-2015

Week 18 : May 4 - 18, 2015

ANDRÉ ANTOINE (1858-1942) Portrait as a Theater Director, Paris, 1893 No vintage print found, digitized by Getty Image® without original credit. André Antoine was a clerk at the Paris Gas Utility and worked in the Archer Theatre when he asked to produce a dramatisation of a novel by Émile Zola. The amateur group refused it, so he decided to create his own theatre to realize his vision of the proper development of dramatic art. This adventure starts in early 1887 in Montmartre. In September, he rents his own workshop for the rehearsals with an independent staircase at 96 rue Blanche: “We have a headquarter and it is an honest admiration of the authors and young ones who took on the habit of going upstairs to chat…” André Antoine, Mes souvenirs sur le Théâtre Libre. An inn, with the beautiful name of “Auberge Blanche” is on the ground floor, the entrance is from the interior of the porch. “Théâtre-Libre was a théâtre d'essai, a workshop theatre, where plays were produced whether they would perform at the box office or not. It was also a stage for new writing, the subject matter or form of which had been rejected in other theatres. Over a 7-year period, until 1894, the Théâtre-Libre staged some 111 plays. His work had enormous influence on the French stage, as well as on similar companies elsewhere in Europe, such as the Independent Theatre Society in London and the Freie Bühne in Germany” (Wikipedia).

Courtyard, 96, rue Blanche today

Transmission 18-2015

Week 18 : May 4 - 18, 2015

André Antoine (1858-1942) Call in the Cri du Peuple, Paris, 7 septembre 1887 Original newspaper printed on acid paper, one copy survived at BHVP. About 4 September 1887, André Antoine writes to Paul Alexis, reporter for the Cri du Peuple, a revolutionary newspaper born during the Paris Commune, and run by Séverine since the death of Jules Vallès. “My dear Trublot, I have a wall of sixty or eighty square meters to decorate in the rehearsal hall. I have also been thinking about the young ones, those who paint or sculpt marvels sometimes and keep them in their attics. Could you please make a call for them in your Cri ? They’ll hang their paintings on the walls and as there’ll be an ebb and flow of chic people, it will be a very modest but useful exhibition. Think about it, I have princes and millionaires on my member’s list. They would instantly buy a painting if it catches their attention. The artists can take them off whenever they wish to do so. Isn’t this a good idea ? And it could be useful for everyone. We don’t need frames, I’d like to keep a purely artistic atmosphere – not at all bourgeois — in the head office of the Théâtre-Libre. We would make art in all manners. Could these young people get in touch with me? Yours ” A. Antoine. Alexis published this appeal with his useful approval : “It’s done, boy! A fighter for sure this Antoine, deserves to make it. And he will, I say it! Amazing ideas, an extraordinary organisational spirit and a will , what else to say! Since its foundation, the secretary of the theatre wrote something like 1.500 babbles. Yes, the painters — and the sculptors too — will surely come to embellish the headquarters of our Théâtre-Libre. Mézigues guarantees the presence of the impressionnisses (sic)”. 8

Transmission 18-2015

Week 18 : May 4 - 18, 2015

JULES ANTOINE (1800-1800) [Self-]portrait as an artist or art critic, Paris, 1888 [Self-]portrait as a Paris city planner, circa 1898 Tintype, 75x50 mm and modern silver print from a collodion on glass square negative (both still in the family collection). Jules, André Antoine’s younger brother, is close to Parisian Anarchists, Maximilien Luce, Firmin Gémier, and also to Theo Van Gogh and the neoimpressionists, he has written articles about them in the magazine Art et Critique, he is passionate about photographic processes. The family keep some of his autochromes, tintypes, collodion glass negatives. In september 2009, his greatgrandson, Daniel Danzon, opened an exhibition of autochromes, negatives and new silver prints in his framer shop, cadrexquis, 31, rue Doudeauville.

Transmission 18-2015

Week 18 : May 4 - 18, 2015

John Peter Russell (1858-1930) Portrait of Vincent Van Gogh, Paris, November 1886 Oil on canvas, 60.1 cm x 45.6 cm, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation) The Australia-born painter John Peter Russell got to know Vincent at Fernand Cormon’s studio. He painted this portrait of his friend in a conventional, realistic style. It is clearly influenced by photography, although the face and the hand still show Impressionist touches. In Hartrick’s view, this was the most accurate portrait of Van Gogh – more realistic than the likenesses done by other artists or any of Vincent’s self-portraits. Van Gogh was very attached to it. Years later, he wrote to Theo: ‘take good care of my portrait by Russell, which means a lot to me”. “In Paris, on 8th February 1888 Russel married Auguste Rodin's beautiful Italian model Marianna Antoinetta Mattiocco. Van Gogh appearance, a “cowboy (bouvier) with a fur toque” as described by Gauguin, is in contrast with his incredible erudition. His kindness and wittiness will make him a friend of the whole clique very fast. Vincent is a regular of Père Tanguy’s shop, where he meets many avant-garde painters. Long and animated conversations with all these painters were taking place in Montmartre in the different ateliers, cafés and lodges. An artistic movement was agitating Paris: the divisionism of Georges Seurat and his friend Paul Signac. Vincent is won over: “Seurat is the master”, he says, facing the criticism of Bernard who loathed the Divisionists. Vincent was dreaming of an association of artists and didn’t understand these “disastrous civil wars”.

Transmission 18-2015

Week 18 : May 4 - 18, 2015

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Self-portrait with Bandaged Ear, Arles, January 1889 Oil on canvas, 51×45 cm, Leigh B. Block collection, Chicago (reversed). Preliminary note: six men around the table, three carry a hat, another (Émile Bernard) has a hat placed on his knees. The curious fur cap casually placed in the middle of the table can only correspond to the last two characters. Could the white-haired man decorated with the Legion of Honour (Jobbé-Duval) have such a bad education ? The two pipes with their metal ring also seem to fit. Finally, both coats are buttoned by one button only.

“Without a mirror, the great self-portraits by Dürer, Frida Kahlo, Rembrandt, and Van Gogh could not have been painted” 11

Transmission 18-2015

Week 18 : May 4 - 18, 2015

Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) Jardin avec amoureux, Asnières, June-July 1887 Oil on canvas, 75 X 112.5cm, Van Gogh Museum The exhibition at the Théâtre-Libre marks the end of his stay in Paris. It would be the third and last exhibition which Vincent took part in. He presented a single painting, “Parc Voyer d’Argenson”, which he used to call “le tableau du Jardin avec amoureux” and which stayed on the wall for 3 months after he had left for Arles on 21st February 1888, in search of colours. “The Parc Voyer d'Argenson was an ambitious undertaking for Van Gogh. It exudes confidence with its modern use of colour, new type of brushwork and subject matter, all of which Van Gogh explored during his sojourn in Paris. It also exemplifies his aspirations for a career as an avant-garde artist. He presented it in a small exhibition in the foyer of the Théâtre-Libre, together with works by Seurat and Signac. While the general public would not have known this small venue, it was recognised in art circles as a showplace for the avant-garde, and offered an opportunity for the initiated to see the newest developments in painting. For Van Gogh this installation was the first occasion on which he could demonstrate his assimilation of the latest ideas in painting and it served to associate him publicly with prominent members of the avant-garde. He must have considered this venue as a decided step upward from the restaurant exhibitions he himself had organised in 1887, even though those displays had included many more canvases. Van Gogh's inclusion in the ThéâtreLibre show indicates that he had gained access to the neo-impressionists and was, at least to a certain extent, accepted by their leaders.

While we do not know if he showed other paintings at the same time, Parc Voyer d'Argenson was undoubtedly a prominent example of his latest work. The size and finish of the composition would have suggested artistic confidence, while the deliberate use of new stylistic elements would have proclaimed the artist's avant-garde leanings. Van Gogh must have considered this presentation a fitting conclusion to his sojourn in Paris. With his departure for Arles he began to develop his own artistic identity, one that he hoped would not only allow him to join the ranks but make him stand out among his contemporaries.” (Van Gogh Museum Journal, 2002, extracts) 12

Transmission 18-2015

Week 18 : May 4 - 18, 2015

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Letter to Émile Bernard, Paris, about December 1887

Dites donc — en somme ce que je cherchais l’autre jour à t’expliquer revient à ceci.— Pour eviter les généralités permets moi de prendre un exemple sur le vif.— Si tu es brouillé avec un peintre, par exemple avec Signac et qu’en consequence de cela tu dis — si Signac expose là où j’expose je retire mes toiles — et si tu le dénigres, alors il me semble que tu agis pas aussi bien que tu pourrais agir.

Manuscript letter, 4 pages, 205x133 mm, Thaw Collection, Morgan Library The presence of his painting Jardin avec des amoureux in a competing exhibition at the Restaurant du Chalet, Grand Bouillon, 43 avenue de Clichy caused a dispute with Émile Bernard. The remembrance of this dispute reached us through a long and beautiful letter written in French by Vincent:

Car il est mieux d’y regarder longtemps avant de juger si categoriquement et de refléchir, la réflection nous faisant apercevoir à nous-même, en cas de brouille, pour notre propre compte autant de torts que notre adversaire et à celui ci autant de raison d’être que nous puissions en desirer pour nous.—

“Mon cher copain Bernard, je sens le besoin de te demander pardon de t’avoir lâché si brusquement l’autre jour. Ce que par la présente je fais donc sans tarder. Je te recommande de lire les Légendes russes de Tolstoï et je t’aurai aussi l’article sur Eug. Delacroix dont je t’ai parlé.

Si donc tu as deja réflechi que Signac et les autres qui font du pointillé font avec cela assez souvent de très belles choses —Au lieu de dénigrer celleslà il faut surtout en cas de brouille les estimer et en parler avec sympathie.

Je suis moi tout de même allé chez Guillaumin, mais dans la soirée, et j’ai pensé que peut-être toi ne sais pas son adresse qui est 13 Quai d’Anjou. Je crois que comme homme Guillaumin a les idées mieux en place que les autres et que si tous étaient comme lui on produirait davantage de bonnes choses et aurait moins de temps et d’envie de se manger le nez.

Sans cela on devient sectaire étroit soi-même et l’équivalent de ceux qui n’estiment pour rien les autres et se croient les seuls justes.— Ceci s’étend même aux académiciens car prends par exemple un tableau de Fantin Latour — surtout l’ensemble de son oeuvre.— Eh bien — voila quelqu’un qui ne s’est pas insurgé et est-ce que cela l’empêche, ce je ne sais quoi de calme et de juste qu’il a, d’etre un des caracteres les plus indépendants existants (...)

Je persiste à croire que, non pas parceque moi je t’ai engueulé mais parceque cela deviendra ta propre conviction, je persiste à croire que tu t’apercevras que dans les ateliers non seulement on n’apprend pas grand chose quant à la peinture mais encore pas grand chôse de bien en tant que savoir vivre. Et qu’on se trouve obligé d’apprendre à vivre comme à peindre sans avoir recours aux vieux trucs et trompe l’oeil d’intrigants.

Volontiers je ferai mon possible pour faire que ce que l’on a commencé dans la salle reussisse mais je crois que la premiere condition pour reussir c’est de laisser là les petites jalousies, il n’y a que l’union qui fait la force. L’interêt commun vaut bien qu’on y sacrifie l’égoisme, le chacun pour soi. Je te serre bien la main. Vincent”.

Je ne pense pas que ton portrait de toi-meme sera ton dernier ni ton meilleur – quoique en somme ce soit terriblement toi. 13

Transmission 18-2015

Week 18 : May 4 - 18, 2015

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Letter to Émile Bernard, Paris, about December 1887

If you've fallen out with a painter, with Signac, for example, and if as a result you say: I'll withdraw my canvases if Signac exhibits where I exhibit—and if you run him down, then it seems to me that you are not behaving as well as you could.

Translation made by the Van Gogh Museum, we propose to read the important word “salle” (room) as the “salle de répétitions” (rehearsal room), and not as a “salle de restaurant” (dining room):

Because it's better to take a long look at it before judging so categorically and to reflect, reflection making us see in ourselves, when there's a falling out, as many faults on our own side as in our adversary, and in him as many justifications as we might desire for ourselves.

“My dear old Bernard, I feel the need to beg your pardon for leaving you so abruptly the other day. Which I therefore do herewith, without delay. I recommend that you read Tolstoy's Les Légendes Russes, and I'll also let you have the article on E. Delacroix that I've spoken to you about.

If, therefore, you have already considered that Signac and the others who are doing pointillism often make very beautiful things with it— Instead of running those things down, one should respect them and speak of them sympathetically, especially when there's a falling out.

I, for my part, did go to Guillaumin's anyway, but in the evening, and I thought that perhaps you didn't know his address, which is 13 quai d'Anjou. I believe that, as a man, Guillaumin has sounder ideas than the others, and that if we were all like him we'd produce more good things and would have less time and inclination to be at each other's throats.

Otherwise one becomes a narrow sectarian oneself and the equivalent of those who think nothing of others and believe themselves to be the only righteous ones.

I persist in believing that—not because I gave you a rocket but because it will become your own conviction—I persist in believing that you'll realize that in the studios not only does one not learn very much as far as painting goes, but not much that's good in terms of savoir vivre, either. And that one finds oneself obliged to learn to live, as one does to paint, without resorting to the old tricks and trompe l'oeil of schemers.

This extends even to the academicians, because take, for example, a painting by Fantin-Latour —and above all his entire oeuvre. Well then— there's someone who hasn't rebelled, and does that prevent him, that indefinable calm and righteousness that he has, being one of the most independent characters in existence? (...)

I don't think your portrait of yourself will be your last, or your best— although all in all it is frightfully you. Look here—briefly, what I was trying to explain to you the other day comes down to this. In order to avoid generalities, let me take an example from life.

I 'll gladly do all I can to make a success of what was started in the room, but I believe that the first condition for success is to put aside petty jealousies; it's only unity that makes strength. It's well worth sacrificing selfishness, the "each man for himself," in the common interest. I shake your hand firmly. Vincent”. 14

Transmission 18-2015

Week 18 : May 4 - 18, 2015

Attrib. Jules Antoine

(1863-1948) Possibly Paul Signac Paris, 96 rue Blanche, 1887 Melanotype, collodion on waterproofed cardboard, 118x159 mm, stamped “Gautier Martin breveté”, recto. Portrait of a person with a top hat found in the same archive of Ronal Davis. It is the only other example of this exact process know until now. We notice that it is the same table, the same photographic technique, direct positive collodion on cardboard with the same seal “Gautier Martin” on the upper right corner, and the same provenance. The top hat isn’t innocuous. We can compare this portrait to the caricature of Paul Signac made by Émile Bernard shortly before their dispute. We carry on our research on the Portraits of Paul Signac dating from the years 1887 – 1888. Here’s the drawing which was published in the magazine Les Hommes d’aujourd’hui. 15

“Compare the table with the Auberge Blanche conversation”

Transmission 18-2015

Week 18 : May 4 - 18, 2015

Ronald Davis (1886-1931) On the Doorsep of his new elegant shop, Paris, 1929 Vintage silver print on postcard size paper, same provenance. “Ronald Davis was a small, independent publisher who published more than thirty books in small editions between 1920 and 1931. They were mostly literary works by Claudel, Jarry, Rimbaud, Baudelaire and Valéry, and it is due to those Valéry editions that Davis wasn't completely forgotten and that his life story was researched. An enthusiastic American librarian and Valéry enthusiast, Roger Stoddard, was intrigued by this enigmatic publisher, and started investigating. During World War I, the Jewish-born Englishman Ronal Davis wound up in France as a soldier, fell in love with a Frenchwoman and settled down in Paris, where he opened a little bookstore in 1920. One day Miriam de Rothschild walked into the store: a stubborn, dominant and extremely wealthy lady, and a member of the famous family of bankers. She became a regular customer, and Davis purchased important acquisitions for her already impressive collection...” (Roger E. Stoddard, À Ronald Davis qui Vend le Pire et Garde le Meilleur pour soi, Gazette of the Grolier club, 1991.

Printer’s proof for a Toulouse-Lautrec programm, Valery ironic dedication

Librairie Ronald Davis, 160 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré

The covers you have missed

Transmission

18-2015

Discovery of an unknown portrait

Uploaded at 3.15 pm Monday 4th May 2015 Studios Robespierre