[Aristide Maillol, illustrator]. Longus. Les Pastorales de Longus ou Daphnis & Chloé. Version d'Amyot revue et c...

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One of 500 Copies Signed by Aristide Maillol

[Aristide Maillol, illustrator]. Longus. Les Pastorales de Longus ou Daphnis & Chloé. Version d'Amyot revue et complété par P.-L. Courier. Bois originaux d'Aristide Maillol. [Paris: Philippe Gonin, 1937].

One of 500 copies on Maillol laid paper, this copy being No. 360, signed by the artist. Octavo (8.5625 x 5.375 inches; 218 x 136 mm.). [2, half-title], 217, [1], [1, contents], [1, colophon], [1, printing statement], [1, blank] pages. With fifty-two woodcuts and four decorative woodcut initials. Printed on handmade paper manufactured by an old process rediscovered by Aristide Maillol.

Loose, as issued, in the original mauve printed wrappers. A few leaves very slightly browned. A fine copy. In the original chemise and slipcase (slipcase lightly scuffed and rubbed). Protected in a felt-lined linen clamshell case.

"Aristide Maillol engraved with his own hand the wood-cuts which illustrate this book. The text is that of Thornley's translation of 1657, revised and augmented. Philippe Gonin of Paris undertook the achievement of this work, and printed it on his hand-press, for A. Zwemmer, London" (Colophon).

"Classical themes and figure styles appear throughout Maillol's work, both in sculpture and prints. The Daphnis et Chloé, small in scale, is one of the most harmonious of his books. English and German editions were published at the same time, all printed by Philippe Gonin, some in red and some in gray-brown" (Eleanor M. Garvey and Peter A. Wick, The Arts of the French Book, 1900-1965, 22).

The Eclogues (1927) was "the first of several classic books illustrated by the sculptor. The pages of his equally admired, small Daphnis et Chloé by Longus of 1937, like The Eclogues, were based on the Italian Renaissance design in which a picture is placed within a square or rectangle above a well-designed block of type. Both books share the clarity that linear images and type of the proper design and weight give to a page" (Riva Castleman, A Century of Artists Books, page 110).

The Artist & the Book 174. The Artist and the Book in France, p. 337.