LELOIR (Mauritius) - CAHU (Theodore).

LELOIR (Mauritius) - CAHU (Theodore).
Richelieu. Foreword by Gabriel Hanotaux.

Paris: Combet & Cie, 1901. - Grand in-4, 384 x 297: (2 ff.), IV, 84 pp., illustrated cover. Red Jansenist morocco with bradel, smooth back, untrimmed, cover preserved (E. Carayon). A
beautiful album for young people, dedicated to the story of Richelieu, brilliantly illustrated with 42 colour compositions by Maurice Leloir, including one on the cover, one on the title and two on the double page.
Leloir's illustrations are very realistic. In all his productions, the artist used to reconstruct as faithfully as possible the costumes and attitudes of the past, in the manner of photographs.
Gabriel Hanotaux, in his foreword, is full of praise for him: "An artist of rare science and sagacity, gifted by nature with a kind of second sight that allows him to relive and recapture the past, as if he had been the contemporary of the scenes he represents, M. Maurice Leloir, wanted to apply this faculty of divination and resurrection to the life of the great cardinal... He was able, by an effort of will and imagination, to become the pupil and the emulator of Callot and Abraham Bosse. These great artists have... held his pencil. "(pp. ii-iii.
)One of the first 75 copies on paper from China, reserved for the Conquet bookstore (No. 72).
Perfectly preserved copy, despite rare freckles.

Provenance: Paul Villebœuf, with ex-libris.