La Cathédrale

UNIQUE EXEMPLAIRE of this collection assembled by banker-collector Henri Bonnasse (1899-1984).

In addition to the suite of illustrations from the Blaizot edition - 64 plates from the first state printed on japon - the collection includes two colored pencil drawings mounted under passeparout and dedicated to the engraver and printer Alfred Porcabeuf (1867-1952):
- La Ville de Chartres vue de Notre-Dame de Chartres (247 x 171 mm) annotated in pencil "à mon ami Porcabeuf qui a aimé avec moi et Huysmans et Chartres" in the lower margin.
- The Cathedral. Suite des Iers états by Charles Jouas (249 x 164 mm). Dated and signed "Chartres, 1907".

Also includes 2 japon proofs of Barlangue's portrait of Huysmans, one of the state before the letter, the second of the state with remarks. This portrait belongs to the edition of Sac au dos, published by Romagnol in 1913, as well as 2 japon proofs of one of the cathedral's tympanums annotated in pencil respectively: "1er plat intérieur pour la reliure" and "2e plat intérieur pour la reliure".

Finally, plate 13 is in double condition.

A magnificent and unique copy of this suite of illustrations dedicated to Huysmans' La Cathédrale, the second volume of the "conversion trilogy".

If in 1882 Monsieur Folantin criticized the Church, whose dogmas he felt were made only for slow minds, Huysmans finally immersed himself in religion, a wise choice, or at least the wiser of the two possibilities that Barbey d'Aurevilly designated as inescapable for the author of À Rebours: "the mouth of a pistol or the feet of the cross".