PILLE. Reform Leave Certificate. 105 Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie. PILLE, Louis Antoine. Reform Leave Certificate. 105 Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie. Lyon, 11 December 1798 Oblong folio. 244x325. Illustrations printed in woodcut, with the symbols of the revolution, the fasces and the Phrygian cap at the top, soldiers of the revolutionary army on the sides. Within the central box the text is partly printed and partly handwritten. Red wax seal with the Coat of Arms of the Demi-Brigade and oval stamp of the "Departement de la Guerre". Top right handwritten signature of General L. A. Pille; below several signatures of the Commissioners and members of the Board of Directors of the 'Demi-Brigade'. Slight traces especially on the margins. Reform leave for Laurent Remaque, 'fusilier' of the Demi-Brigade. At the bottom the date "Lyon le Vingt-unieme jur du mois de Frimaire l'an Septieme de la Republique francaise...". The document is countersigned by the Adjutant General Pille, Chef d'Etat-Amjour of the 19th Division Militaire." The 105 Demi-Brigade actively participated in the revolutionary war: in 1799 it played an important role in the Italian Campaign.Louis Antoine Pille, 1749-1828, was a prominent general of the French Revolution and the Empire. He was appointed General of Division in 1795; in the year VI, September 22, 1797 - September 21, 1798, he was entrusted with the command-in-chief of twelve departments of Southern France, from the Alps and the Pyrenees to the Ocean. He received a letter from General Bonaparte in which the sentence appears, "Le gouvernement ne pouvait confier en des mains plus sages des fonctions plus importantes."

Émile COHL (1857-1938) Brothers, we have to laugh! Jules Lévy le père des incohérérents drawn incoherently by Emile Cohl India ink on paper lined with cardboard, signed lower left, titled center. 36.5 x 25 cm Bibliography: Juan Gris, dessinateur de presse à Montmartre, Pierre Bacholet, Editions Louise Leiris, reproduced and described on page 495 with the following text: Drawing by Emile Cohl, André Gil's friend and one of the creators of animation, published in Le Courrier français n°39, March 12, 1885. Reproduced in Le Courrier français, March 12, 1885, which "became, at the beginning of its publication, the organ of the Incohérents, a group of artists who wanted to push certain graphic audacities to the point of absurdity, not without announcing cubism... The magazine had its offices in the press district at 25, rue de Richelieu, in the building next door to Le Cri de Paris. A whole host of artists worked for the Courrier français, including Willette, Forain, Félicien Rops, Louis Legrand, Hermann-Paul, Emile Cohl, Uzès, Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri Pille, Ferdinand Lunel, Steinlen, Félix Vallotton, Jacques Villon, Marcel Duchamp and Juan Gris." Pierre Bacholet, op. cit. Brothers, we have to laugh! This is the dogma of the Incohérents art movement. If it's a bit of a misnomer to speak of an artistic movement as such, this moment in art history can be considered "the avant-garde of the avant-garde". Still little-known, little-documented, but promoted in recent years by art historians and notably by the philosopher Michel Onfray*, incoherent art originated at the end of the 19th century thanks to Jules Lévy and other personalities whose aim was to mock official, if not serious, art, by adopting its codes and hijacking them. It was in this atmosphere that the first exhibition for people who couldn't draw took place in Paris in 1882. One of the canvases exhibited was Combat de nègres dans une cave pendant la nuit. It was the first monochrome in art history, before Malevitch or Klein. It was also the first time that everyday objects were shown simply for what they were. A simple pair of suspenders, for example, found its place among paintings and other objects presented as art. This was also the first Readymade, more than twenty years before Marcel Duchamp and his famous Urinoir. Driven by a pre-Dada, pre-Surrealist spirit, the Incohérents chose laughter and puns to mock official art. This is the atmosphere reflected in our drawing: Emile Cohl portrays Jules Lévy, the father of the Incohérents, with mischievous eyes and a toothy grin, topped by a harlequin with bells, seemingly inviting us to join in his inspiration for jubilant buffoonery. *Michel Onfray, Les Anartistes. Le trésor retrouvé des Arts incohérents, Paris, Albin Michel, April 2022