Champfleury - Lot 5

Champfleury Les Excentriques. Michel Lévy, Paris, 1852. First edition (18.3 x 12 cm). A copy by Eugène Delacroix with a letter from Champfleury, who, along with Baudelaire, was a staunch defender of the painter, considered by the two writers to be "the leader of the modern school". Contemporary binding: brown half-chagrin, spine ribbed, speckled edges. The copy is dedicated by the author in black ink on the title page: "A M. Eugène Delacroix His devoted admirer Champfleury". Les Excentriques is a gallery of portraits of real or fictional characters considered curious and fascinating (Daumier, Berbiguier, l'abbé Chatel, Jupille, Bug-Jargal, etc.) by Champfleury (1821-1889), which partly earned him his reputation as a "realist", particularly in relation to the harsh criticism he received when some of these portraits appeared in Le Corsaire-Satan. This copy marks the strong association between the great Romantic artist and the leader of Realism. After supporting Gustave Courbet, Champfleury returned to Delacroix as an artistic role model, a return that coincided with Charles Baudelaire's, and later Zacharie Astruc's, exaltation of the painter. Champfleury later married Delacroix's goddaughter. In Fantin-Latour's L'Hommage à Delacroix (1864), Champfleury appears to preside over the meeting between Whistler and Manet, alongside Baudelaire. Provenance: Eugène Delacroix; Librairie Pierre Saunier, Paris, Bazar à Treize catalog, 2014, no. 12.