MALLARMÉ, Stéphane (1842-1898; transl.)
POE, Edgar Allan (1809-1849)
MANET, Édouard (1832-1883)

Le Corbeau (The Raven)

Paris: Richard Lesclide 1875.

Folio (548 x 358 mm). 10 unnumbered leaves: 6 leaves of Hollande with printed title in red and black, justification verso, half-title and parallel text in English (Poe) and French (Mallarmé’s translation), final leaf with ‘achevé d’imprimer’ dated ‘le Vingt Mai Mil Huit Cent Soixante-Quinze’ verso; 4 leaves of Hollande with Manet’s monochrome lithographs printed recto only, each signed ‘E.M’ in the stone (sheet size c. 546 x 354 mm) and smaller loosely inserted parchment ‘Ex Libris’ leaf (194 x 278 mm) with monochrome printed text and lithograph by manet (raven in flight). Original vellum wrappers, with Manet’s lithograph raven head. A fine copy.

Manet’s illustrations for Mallarmé’s translation of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven in its original vellum wrappers, very rare thus.

From the edition limited to 240 copies (although only 150 were printed – see below)

Le Corbeau, a large and striking work, is cited as one of the high points of French book illustration. Considered ‘an astonishingly modern illustrated book for 1875’ [The Artist and the Book] it represents a turning-point in the history of the illustrated book, which was subsequently ‘liberated’ from literal interpretation.

The technique used by Manet for the Corbeau plates was transfer lithography, ‘a method ideally suited to the brush-and-ink drawing style …’ [Manet]. Wilson-Bareau describes the process, how Manet ‘brushed in his designs with transfer ink on sheets of paper that Lefman, the specialist printer for this technique, then transferred to zinc plates for printing …’

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