Paul Gavarni

Costume of Brittany (Costume de Bretagne) wash drawing in brown and grey ink (lavis d'encre), circa 1833-4, signed by the artist lower right, on fine tan wove paper, laid down over carton, and glued into an old mount (which we have not dismantled) slight foxing, otherwise in very good condition Provenance: a private English collection S. 200 x 140 mm.

Gavarni was noted for his almost ethnographic studies of contemporary life in France in a variety of social classes and  several media; his quest took him from the salons of Paris to the regionalisms of the time.

He  traveled widely, apparently with a stay in Brittany in the early 1830s, as is witnessed by his published observations in the popular press. *