Gustave Desnoirest, Iconographie voltairienne. Histoire et description de ce qui a été publié sur Voltaire par l’art contemporain (Paris: Didier, 1879). One volume expanded into two. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2020- in process

This unique, extra-illustrated copy of Gustave Desnoiresterres’s, Iconographie voltairienne. Histoire et description de ce qui a été publié sur Voltaire par l’art contemporain (Paris: Didier, 1879) has been expanded from one volume to two with 151 etchings, engravings, and sketches of François-Marie Arouet (1694-1778), known as Voltaire.

Presumably from the late nineteenth century, the anonymous collector who gathered the portraits assembled them without additional captions or references.

One of the highlights of this collection is a proof before letters of the color etching by Pierre Michel Alix (1762-1817) after a painting by Jean-François Garneray (1755-1837), prepared for the Collection des Grands Hommes. The Graphic Arts Collection also holds separate portraits of Charles Linne, Jean Racine, Moliere, Montaigne, and Voltaire from this same series.

The iconography of Voltaire includes prints by Augustin de Saint-Aubin (1736–1807) after Jean Antoine Houdon (1741–1828), François Louis Couché (1782-1849), and even a few presumably designed by Voltaire himself. All ages of the writer’s life are depicted. Listed by our dealer as a must for “assiduous Voltairians,” here are a few examples.