Le portrait de Dorian Gray
Artist: Jean-Émile Laboureur (French, 1877-1943)
Publisher: Société d’Édition "Le Livre", Paris, 1928 (Émile Chamontin, director)
Printer: engravings: A. & M. Vernant, Paris; text: R. Coulouma, Paris (H. Barthélemy, director)
Binder: Randeynes & Fils, [s.l.]
Author: Oscar Wilde (Irish | British, 1854-1900)
Date: 1928
Dimensions:
Book: H: 11 3/8 in. (289 mm); W: 8 1/8 in. (206 mm); Depth: 1 7/8 in. (47 mm).
Page (partially trimmed): H: 11 in. (280 mm); W: 7 15/16 in. (201 mm).
Medium: Original prints: 24 engravings. Text: letterpress in black with lavender (typeface: Caslon). Paper: Marais cream wove watermarked with the title of the novel and with the publisher: Le Livre.
Classification: Books
Credit Line: Gift of Molly and Walter Bareiss
Object number: 1984.641
Label Text:The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) is playwright Oscar Wilde’s only novel. It tells the story of a London man who mysteriously remains youthful while his portrait takes on all the ugliness and decay of his decadent lifestyle. This French translation of the novel was illustrated by French print maker Jean-Émile Laboureur. Born in Nantes, Laboureur settled in Paris in 1895, ostensibly to study law. There he met and studied with the talented wood-engraver Auguste Lepère. While Lepère imparted technical expertise, artists like Toulouse-Lautrec, with whom Laboureur learned lithography, encouraged his cosmopolitan sense of humor and irony. Inspired by the development of Cubism in the early 20th century, Laboureur combined geometric line with a love of classical art, developing a distinctive style particularly suited for book illustration.
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