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Lithograph, 237 x 310 mm. La Combe 85, IFF 66.
Very fine impression printed on white wove paper. A small 10 mm tear repaired in a summary way in the bottom margin (in the blank part, to the left) and a few small stains in the margins. Impression trimmed half a millimetre inside the platemark bottom (loss of the tip of the g in Lithographiques) and small margins on the three other sides (sheet: 257 x 345 mm).
Nicolas-Toussaint Charlet sketched his favourite subjects, a sapper and a conscript, with a lot of humour, as they pore over lithographs that represent them in their daily life: marching into combat, taking care of horses, etc. As for the print dealer, he seems to be sleeping in his open-air market.
This famous lithograph was printed at François-Séraphin Delpech’s printing workshop (1778-1825). It can be dated to 1818-1819, which makes it a lithographic incunabulum. François-Séraphin Delpech had his own shop and printing workshop at 3, Quai Voltaire in Paris, which Carle Vernet depicted in an 1818 lithograph: Imprimerie lithographique de F. Delpech.
Rare (marked ‘R’ in La Combe’s catalogue raisonné).
