Buhot's Literary Illustrations
Félix Buhot’s print oeuvre contains recurring references to literature, from illustrations for poems and novels to depictions of books and images of figures reading. He also produced a number of bookplates and ex-libris sheets, intended for inclusion inside specific volumes. Buhot engrained himself within literary culture—he was an avid consumer of the poems and novels of his day and also explored creative writing on his own. Yet, Buhot’s literary illustrations go beyond a simple interest in the written word, or the promise of financial stability, which drew in many artists who engaged in commercial illustration. Instead, literary illustration became a way for Buhot to experiment with compositional strategies and subject matter that diverged from the genre scenes for which he is best known.
Édouard Manet's lithograph bookplate for the French translation of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven by Stéphane Mallarmé.
Buhot’s interest in illustrations stems in part from his admiration for Édouard Manet. In 1875, Manet produced a suite of lithographs for Stéphane Mallarmé’s French translation of Edgar Allen Poe’s 1845 poem The Raven. Although this series remains the most lauded of Manet’s literary illustrations, the artist’s 1874 illustrations of Charles Cros’ The River particularly intrigued Buhot. Manet’s lithographs accompanied the Cros text, but the images were less a literal illustration of the poem than the artist’s interpretation of the work. This approach fascinated Buhot because it provided a far greater degree of artistic license and dovetailed nicely with the fantastical novels he often illustrated.
Buhot’s literary illustrations provided an opportunity for the artist to explore fantastical subject matter and engage with innovative compositions, laying the groundwork for his so-called symphonic margins. His illustrations for Jacques Cazotte’s The Devil in Love, an occult romance novel originally published in 1772, include a variety of macabre images. Although he left the margins otherwise blank in this series, the printed areas incorporate elaborate anamorphous (lacking form) framing devices. In realizing one of the illustrations for Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly’s 1852 novel, The Bewitched, Buhot initially included sketch-like vignettes around the framed central scene on the plate (later removed for the edition), an approach he would expand on to create the symphonic margin. The development of this idea has been linked to the marginalia Buhot saw in medieval manuscripts that were accessible to him near his hometown of Valognes in Normandy. Later this technique would figure prominently in one of Buhot’s best-known works, Winter in Paris. Buhot generally created illustrations for later editions of publications previously released as text-only volumes. Additionally, Buhot etched prints illustrating poems by Charles Baudelaire and Victor Hugo, personal projects not intended for inclusion in a publication.
Buhot expanded his practice and conducted experiments through the bold choices he piloted in his literary illustrations. The pretext that these prints were merely a translation of a writer’s words into visual form provided a degree of protection from criticism for works that might otherwise have been considered risky due to their atypical compositions. Literature and illustration provided Buhot with a forum to expand and adapt his printmaking practice.
Theresa A. Cunningham
Additional illustrations:
