SCHMIED François-Louis (1873-1941)

Lot 167
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Estimation :
20000 - 30000 EUR
SCHMIED François-Louis (1873-1941)
Dark-skinned. From St-Nazaire to La Ciotat. Logbook. Society of the XXX of Lyon, 1931. In-4, black morocco, embedded in the first plate, of which it occupies the whole surface, large lacquer on ebonite worked in material representing a head of Sphinx, thin frame of gilded nets in crosses, back decorated in the same way, as well as a vertical band going along the hinge on the second plate, large interior frame decorated with the gilded net, lining and guards of red ochre cloth, gilded edges, cover and back, half morocco shirt, split case (G. Cretté succ de Marius Michel, F.-L. Schmied del., Jean Dunand laqueur). Original edition of the logbook kept by François-Louis Schmied during a cruise from July to October 1927, on his boat Peau- Brune, whose decoration he had entrusted to Jean Dunand, who was part of the cruise with his daughter. In 1930, Dunand will execute a portrait of his friend in front of the bow of his boat: a ram in carved wood and metal, lacquered in his workshops. F.-L. Schmied illustrated the edition with 120 compositions, including 2 full-page illustrations of Peau-Brune, all engraved on wood in colour. For this work, F.-L. Schmied adopts an original layout: two columns separated by a set of five red lines, reserving underneath them an empty space equal to the width of a column, the woods, of very different sizes, sometimes being used as ends of lines. In the preface, Schmied states: "Perhaps I will be reproached for the apparent imbalance of my pages? Imbalance? No, they will not. Asymmetry (sic): I certainly have a taste for it. It has always seemed to me that symmetry was the reflection of a laziness of mind that is content to invent only half, or even a quarter of a work. Asymmetry (sic) requires a more sustained and varied effort. A noble decoration [...] must develop its own complete rhythm on the given surface". Schmied ends his preface with a poetic evocation of the organization of the illustration: "And now, little blo
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