S'il fendoit toutes les Buches dema connoissance Quel ouvrage!
(If he were to chop all the logs [blockheads] I know, what a piece of work!)
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A man drawn in monochrome except for his short-sleeved tunic which is coloured red, is depicted facing towards the right. Beneath the tunic he wears a white shirt with sleeves rolled up to the elbow, short breeches – possibly also rolled up - and ankle boots. He wears a brimless hat decorated with two feathers that unfurl to the left. Both his legs are bent at the knee, his left leg, which is positioned behind his right, more sharply so. On the ground at his feet there are two logs, also drawn in monochrome, which cross over one another at right angles.The man holds the handle of an axe aloft in both hands as if about to chop them.
Curatorial commentary
- The caption plays on the double meaning of “bûche”: log and a dim, stupid person. Thus the task referred to in the drawing is the getting rid of dolts. “Bûches” with this same implied meaning are several times found in the “Livre de Caricatures” (cf. 675.190, 675.234, 675.235, 675.356).
- This drawing is in Style A, attributed to the principal author of the “Livre de Caricatures”, Charles-Germain de Saint-Aubin. Style A displays a childish and naïve aesthetic and sometimes subject matter, and is characterised by crispness of execution, clear outlines and smooth application of colour. It is especially dominant in the early part of the book, from 675.3 to around 675.160. The opening inscription (675.1a) claims that the book was acquired from booksellers on the Paris quays in 1740 already containing drawings in another hand. The inscription states that ‘my friends put captions [underneath the drawings] and got me to continue this miscellany of follies’ (“mes amis y mirent des légendes et m’engagerent à continuer ce melange de folies”). This may be a tall story, explicable by Charles-Germain’s reluctance to admit authorship of the work. Charles-Germain was a versatile artist, and the possibility that he was responsible for the entire process in these initial drawings cannot be ruled out. In the drawings in the book not in Style A, Charles-Germain first made graphite sketches in much the same way. However it is possible that on the sections of the book dominated by Style A, Charles-Germain confined himself to working up existing graphite drawings, as well as adding details and also, with his friends’ assistance as he describes, the captions.
Dimensions (mm) / weight (mg)
187 x 132
Inscriptions
S'il fendoit toutes les Buches dema connoissance / Quel ouvrage!
Inscription
Inscribed in an unknown hand, below image, in ink
80
Pagination
Top left corner, in ink
Translation of inscription
If he were to chop all the logs [blockheads] I know, what a piece of work!
Underdrawing
Around axe, in graphite; the axe was once slightly to the right of its current position.
Language
French
Part of
- Livre de Caricatures tant bonnes que mauvaises. 675.1-389
Collection
- Waddesdon (National Trust)
- Bequest of James de Rothschild, 1957
Bibliography
- Katie Scott; Saint-Aubin's jokes and their relation to...; Colin Jones, Juliet Carey, Emily Richardson, The Saint-Aubin Livre de caricatures: drawing satire in eighteenth-century Paris, Oxford, SVEC, 2012; 349-403; p. 374n