ADOLPHE LALAUZE

SCENE FROM GIL BLAS: GIL BLAS DISMISSED BY THE ARCHBISHOP OF GRANADA

ADOLPHE LALAUZE
Rive-de-Gier1838–1906 Milly-la-Forêt

Pen, ink and watercolor wash on paper
29.5 × 23.5 cm / 11.6 × 9.3 in
Framed: 58.5 × 47 cm / 23 × 18.5 in
Original period frame, circa 1930s

This outstanding drawing represents one of the most dramatic and psychologically charged episodes from Alain-René Lesage’s Les Aventures de Gil Blas de Santillane: the moment when Gil Blas is dismissed by the Archbishop of Granada. Having sincerely advised the ageing and nearly blind Archbishop to preach less, the protagonist is accused of insolence and ingratitude, publicly humiliated and cast away. It is a key scene of the novel, encapsulating its essential themes of moral testing, human vanity and fragile dignity.

The sheet is an exceptional work by Adolphe Lalauze, one of the most distinguished French illustrators and etchers of the late nineteenth century. Lalauze, pupil of Léon Gaucherel, was a regular exhibitor at the Paris Salon from 1872, received medals in 1876 and 1878, and was appointed Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur. Celebrated for his refined narrative intelligence and superb command of line and tonal wash, he illustrated many of the great literary monuments of his time, including Don Quixote and The Arabian Nights. The present drawing stands among the finest examples of his work.

This sheet is particularly important as an original drawing created as the model for a major illustrated edition of Gil Blas around 1880 (Lalauze Adolphe Suite de Vignt et une estampes pour servir a l'illustration de... Histoire de Gil Blas... Pariы, Edouard Rouveyre, 1880 ca.). Encountering the original restores what reproduction inevitably diminishes: the breadth and confidence of the wash, the theatrical composition, the emotional rhythm of the figures and the extraordinary control of light and shadow which heightens the drama of the scene. It reveals Lalauze not merely as a skillful illustrator, but as a true master of narrative drawing.

In recent years, late nineteenth-century graphic art has undergone a profound reevaluation. Once overshadowed by painting and long known only through printed reproductions, the original drawings of the great illustrators are increasingly recognised as autonomous works of art, displaying an artistic intelligence and technical mastery that printing could only partially convey. The present work is a rare and particularly beautiful testimony to this rediscovered world — a powerful, emotionally resonant sheet that unites literary heritage, historical significance and remarkable artistic quality.