Le Fleuve Eaux-Fortes d'Edouard Manet

1874. CROS, Charles. Le Fleuve Eaux-Fortes d'Edouard Manet. 15 pp., 8 etchings within the text. 4to, 268 x 233 mm., full calf binding by P.L. Martin in a matching slipcase dated 1967, preserving the original wrappers. Paris: Librairie de l'Eau-Forte, 1874. A splendid copy of this landmark in modern book illustration, published the year before his better known illustrations to Poe's Raven. The Artist and the Book calls it "probably the first 19th century book to have a truly modern appearance, with etchings simplified almost to abstraction, a square format, and wide margins. Much of the atmospheric quality is due to careful printing by Auguste Delâtre, noted etcher and teacher, who sometimes rubbed his plates slightly after wiping, to spread the ink and soften the tone." According to Francois Chapon "ce petit livre est une réussite, sans doute parce que Manet s'est conformé à un état d'esprit, à un climat de sympathie plus qu'au décalque niais d'une écriture qui se suffisait à elle-même" (Fr. Chapon, Le Peintre et le Livre, p. 15). This copy has the original publisher's printed wrappers, which are smaller than the sheets for the book, and are often lacking. François Chapon, Le Peintre et le livre, 1987, p. 15-16. The Artist and the Book, 1860-1960, Boston, 1961, n° 177.