1841 Pierrot / Mime / Pantomime / Debureau 19th c. lith

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Offered here is an circa 1841 lithograph of the famous mime DEBUREAU, known as the "godfather of all Pierrots" for the role that made him so renowned. This is a full-page ORIGINAL lithographic portrait. Also included is the printed biography that accompanied the portrait when it was originally issued. Compared to the second half ofthe 19th-century, there is little visual record of the French stage of the early 1840s, Such prints are important because the artist drew directly from life. The lithograph is printed on chine appliqué (fine china paper) laid down on thicker wove paper. It is in very good condition, with almost no foxing or spotting (see scan). The sheet measures approximately 12 x 9.25 inches (Height x Width). Jean-Gaspard Deburau , sometimes Debureau (1796 –1846)—born Jan Kašpar Dvořák —was a celebrated Bohemian-French mime. He performed from around 1819 to the year of his death at the Théâtre des Funambules, which was immortalized in Marcel Carné 's poetic-realist film Children of Paradise (1945), where he appears (under his stage-name, "Baptiste") as a major character. His most famous pantomimic creation was Pierrot —a character that served as the godfather of all the Pierrots of Romantic , Decadent , Symbolist , and early Modernist theater and art.Born in Kolín , Bohemia (now Czech Republic ), Deburau was the son of a former soldier, a native of Amiens . Some time before 1814, when he appeared in Paris, the soldier had turned showman, and had begun performing at the head of a nomadic troupe probably made up, at least in part, of his own children. When the company was hired, in 1816, by the manager of the Funambules for mimed and acrobatic acts, the young Deburau was included in the transaction.He probably began his professional life there as a stagehand. Historians of both the mime and the Funambules agree that his debut as Pierrot came no earlier than 1819, perhaps as late as 1825. His "discovery" by the theater-savvy public did not take place, at any rate, until 1828, when the influential writer Charles Nodier wrote a panegyric on his art for La Pandore . Nodier persuaded his friends, fellow men-of-letters, to visit the theater; the journalist Jules Janin published a book of effusive praise, entitled Deburau, histoire du Théâtre � Quatre Sous , in 1832; and by the middle of the 1830s Deburau was known to " tout Paris ." Théophile Gautier wrote of his talent with enthusiasm ("the most perfect actor who ever lived"); Théodore de Banville dedicated poems and sketches to his Pierrot; Charles Baudelaire alluded to his style of acting as a way of understanding "The Essence of Laughter" (1855). He seems to have been almost universally loved by his public, which included the high and the low, both the Romantic poets of the day and the working-class "children of paradise," who installed themselves regularly in the cheapest seats of the house.When he died, his son Jean-Charles (1829–1873) took over his role and later founded a "school" of pantomime, which flourished in the south of France, then, at the end of the century, in the capital. A line can be drawn from that school to that of Marcel Marceau .Jean-Gaspard Deburau is buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. This week we are offering a selection of prints relating to actors, actresses, dancers and opera stars of the 19th century. Check out our other items for other Romantic-era performers, including ballerinas, dancers, and opera stars of the 19th-century! Be sure to add me to your favorites list ! read more

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