About the cover:
Half-fringed binding Spine and front board in black calf, identical but not mirror-image patchwork on both covers with dark brown, grey, black and dark green paper and moss green maroquin, light grey foil stamping on smooth spine, gilt head edge, hand-stitched endpapers, light grey paper endpapers. No chemise and no slipcase. Cover shows signs of wear. (coloured foil does not adhere permanently to boxcalf)
About the content:
Marcel Gromaire: L'Homme de troupe
With 10 wood engravings (85 x 85 mm) drawn and engraved by Marcel Gromaire
Ex. No. 108 of 300 on Vélin d'Arches from a total of 351 copies
À la belle Édition, Paris 1918 Marcel Gromaire (1892-1972) was a French painter and graphic artist. He is one of the most important representatives of French modern painting in the 20th century.
About the artist: Geoges Leroux, born in Grasse in 1922, initially wrote poetry and opened a bookshop for rare books in Cannes. His future wife Lilette was a bookbinder, for whom he soon made his first cover designs. Encouraged by Creuzevault and Rose Adler, the career changer began his career as a cover designer in 1947 and pursued it until the end of his life. He broke away from old-fashioned rules and gave free rein to his playful imagination. With a penchant for surrealism, his works are created in direct dialogue with poets and artists. He scrutinises the text and develops the unusual with great creative vigour. He never rests on what he has learnt, but always seeks change. The results are not only sculpturally overloaded covers, but also ‘jansenistic’ ones. The figurative alternates with the non-representational, including the incorporation of found objects and technical artefacts.
As a non-practitioner, Leroux relied on highly qualified bookbinders and gilders to develop unique covers for rare and precious books. This brought him worldwide recognition.
