PINGRET (Édouard Henri Théophile) - Lot 488

PINGRET (Édouard Henri Théophile) Costumes des Pyrénées dessinés d'après nature & lithog. Paris, Gihaut Frères, sd. (1834). In-4: 1f. (title), 40 lithographed plates hors texte, enhanced in color and gummed at the time. Some plates with lightly browned paper or minor spotting. Some repairs to small marginal tears. Contemporary long-grained ½ red chagrin, ribbed spine richly decorated with rocaille gilt irons, gilt title on upper board, red chagrined paper boards, minor bumping to edges and corners, gilt edges. Complete with 40 plates. There are several editions from the same period, and some plates have variants. Édouard PINGRET (1788-1875) was born and died in St Quentin, Aisne. A reporter-draftsman, he first published an album on his region in 1821, followed by pictorial observations of his travels in Switzerland in 1824 (views and costumes separately) and 1827, the Duchy of Baden (costumes) in 1828, then the Pyrenees (costumes) in 1834, and finally views of Maison-Laffitte in 1838. As a painter, he studied with David, and his genre scenes with figures against a landscape background are influenced by this neo-classical school. But he was also sensitive to the "new chromaticism and light research of the young Romantics". Also a history painter, he was the only painter authorized to follow Louis-Philippe to visit Queen Victoria in 1843.