Date: 1949
Size: 8.5 x 12 inches (3 pages)
Artist: Toulouse-Lautrec & Jules Renard
About the book: One of the most celebrated and sought-after of all livres d’artiste, Histoire Naturelles is regarded as a prototype of nearly all modern bestiaries (Garvey). Lautrec’s illustrations rank among his finest, demonstrating an exquisite refinement of line and wit. (www.peterharrington.co.uk)
The collaboration between Lautrec and Renard began in 1894, when the artist proposed illustrating some of the author’s witty and charming animal portraits. His first sketches were made at the Jardin d’Acclimatation and Jardin des Plantes in 1896, and the final two plates were completed while Lautrec was undergoing treatment at the Neuilly clinic of Dr. Sémalaigne.
Renard’s Histoire Naturelles is considered, alongside Lautrec’s renderings of Yvette Guilbert, a masterpiece of the illustrated book. The partnership between writer and artist, however, was not without tension. Lautrec chafed at being confined to everyday creatures, while Renard objected to certain illustrations, even as he honored the artist with a fox on the cover. The resulting work nevertheless achieves a striking harmony of text and image, bringing together Renard’s irony and Lautrec’s elegance of draftsmanship.
The illustration is sold with the story.