Barraud (Maurice) - Lot 93

Barraud (Maurice) Notes et Croquis de Voyage. Mermod, [Lausanne, 1928]. 18 lithographs by Barraud. First edition (26.9 x 19.7 cm). One of ten first copies on chine of this superb travel account of North Africa, one of the very first painter's books of the 20th century, with two suites of Barraud's original lithographs. Born in Geneva, Maurice Barraud (1889-1954) first opened an advertising studio there in 1909, before devoting himself to painting at the dawn of the Great War, which gave him the opportunity of his first solo exhibition in 1914 at the Moos gallery. With his brother François Barraud (who signed his name Gustave François), Hans Berger, Émile Bressler and Gustave Buchet, he founded the Falot group. The author of numerous prints, he produced two lithographic portfolios: Silence (1916), dedicated to the human disasters of war, and Sept Pierres d'amour (1919), a suite of sometimes subtle, sometimes daring eroticism. A few years later, Notes et croquis de voyage is one of the very first true artist's books of the twentieth century, in which the painter's text is as important as his illustrations. Painters' travels were not new, if we think of Delacroix in Morocco, or shortly before the Great War of Paul Klee or August Macke, but Maurice Barraud was the first to combine his sketches with a real travel diary. Between 1923 and 1926 in particular, he traveled extensively around the Mediterranean, particularly in North Africa, and the strong impressions he gained from his travels nourished the project for this book, as well as his pictorial work in general. Sometimes referred to as the "Swiss Matisse", Barraud often introduced a particular erotic note into his work, evident in the lithographs of Notes et croquis de voyage. This is one of the first books by Lausanne publisher and patron Henry-Louis Mermod (1891-1962), whose debut involved Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz and René Auberjonois in 1926 and 1928. Still a publishing novice, Mermod broke new ground here by entrusting his painter friend Maurice Barraud with the complete production of a pioneering work in the artist's book. Provenance: Lukas Jesus von Boilgy Collection, then Kolonel Gus Jay Viblus.