14 - RIVIÈRE (Henri).

RIVIÈRE (Henri). The Thirty-Six Views of the Eiffel Tower. Prologue by Arsène Alexandre. Paris: Imprimerie Eugène Verneau, 1888–1902. — Oblong quarto, 225 x 290: (48 leaves; the first 2 and last 2 are blank). Publisher’s cardboard binding, covered with “Japanese-style” embossed paper featuring an iris design, untrimmed, with slipcase. A superb and famous album, with a preface by Arsène Alexandre, featuring 36 lithographs by Henri RIVIÈRE, celebrating both the Eiffel Tower and the city of Paris that unfolds around it. This true masterpiece was undertaken in 1888, during the monument’s construction, as the artist strolled around the building and throughout Paris. The artist gives his drawings a Japanese-inspired interpretation, thereby paying direct homage to Hokusai’s Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji. This is how Arsène Alexandre introduces the album in his prologue: “This spectacle consists of a seemingly capricious succession of all manner of views of Paris—bustling, untamed, elegant, dramatic, feverish with hard labor, or tinged with melancholy. Capriciousness, in truth, reigns supreme here—the happiest and most unexpected kind, just as it reigns in the various movements of a symphony: they seem to have no connection between them, neither rhythm nor harmony, yet they are bound by the most powerful link of all—that of a feeling, a state of mind, or an intellectual purpose which may be, for example, as you know, to depict pastoral life or to celebrate the memory of a hero. Here, the aim is to convey the terrifying beauty of Paris, to recount it in all its forms and through all its colors to the ungrateful and carefree Parisians who constantly forget it. To make this album a memento of that beauty for our contemporaries and a testament for those who will come after us.” The edition consisted of 500 copies, numbered and signed by the artist; ours bears the number 54. The plates, executed by Rivière, were printed under his supervision; the text was set using typefaces designed by George Auriol, who also created the decorative motifs, seals, and watermarks; the entire print run was carried out on Eugène Verneau’s presses, and the binding was entrusted to Charles Baron. All the leaves were mounted on tabs. This copy is in a very fine, fresh condition, despite a small tear with no loss at the top of the spine and minor, insignificant foxing along the margins of a few leaves.