MIALHE (Pierre Toussaint Frédérick) - DANDIRAN (Jean Christo - Lot 261

MIALHE (Pierre Toussaint Frédérick) - DANDIRAN (Jean Christophe Frédérick François d'ANDIRAN ou) Excursions dans les Pyrénées composed of 100 picturesque sketches dedicated to S.A.R. Mgr le Duc de Montpensier drawn and lithographed by MIALHE and DANDIRAN. Paris, Mialhe frères, 1837. In folio: lithographed title on mounted chine and100 plates. ½ bronze basane with corners, smooth spine decorated. The "must" of Pyrenean landscape albums, rarely complete with its 100 plates. A reduced version of 80 plates exists. Here, the lithography wonderfully restores the vigorous drawings "d'après nature". Probably little reworked in the studio, they don't have the smoky, dressed-up look of a Jacottet. Mialhe was born in Bordeaux in 1810. He was director of the painting academy in Havana for nine years, then settled in Paris on his return. He died in 1881. Dandiran was also born in Bordeaux in 1802 (or Nérac in 1801, or even Nantes according to Bénézit!). The son of a banker, his fortune collapsed in 1830, and he had to make a living with his paintbrush. He left for Paris and set up studios in Nantes and Lausanne. He worked with Calame, Topffer and Harding. He became a renowned watercolorist. He was the first to publish two-tone lithographs, in 1838. He was the author of numerous lithographs. He died in Lausanne in 1876. (Labarère 1045)(M. Gaston 280 et 329)(Senmartin 153)(Féret III 450 et 17)