Le portrait de Dorian Gray

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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)

Date1928

DimensionsBook: 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).

MediumOriginal 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.

ClassificationBooks

Credit LineGift of Molly and Walter Bareiss

Object number

1984.641

Not on View

Label TextThe 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.Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Splendid Pages: The Molly and Walter Bareiss Collection of Modern Illustrated Books, Feb. 14--May 11, 2003.