Croquis d'après les modèlès vivants. [Sketchbook of a student at the Académie Colarossi]

1929. [Paris: c.1898.]

Oblong sketchbook (15 x 23 cm), c.50 leaves, bound in cloth over boards, upper cover hand-lettered. Cloth lightly foxed and darkened, contents very good.

§ Sketchbook containing approximately 50 life studies of female nudes in pencil and pencil crayon plus three sketches of ornate interiors, made by a student at Académie Colarossi in Paris. The cover of the sketchbook has been lettered "Croquis d'après les modèlès vivants / Académie Colarossi / Paris / AMH". Inside, a collector or bookseller has noted this to be Arthur M. Hannon and given the date of 1898: presumably information based on provenance now lost. Académie Colarossi (1870-1930) was was one of several rivals to the government-sanctioned École des Beaux Arts. In progressive fashion, the Académie Colarossi not only admitted female students but allowed them to draw from male nude models. The school attracted many international students, of whom Arthur Hannon must have been one. His sketches show confidence and talent and are very pleasing, though his name is not readily found among artists of the period. (Inventory #: 126631)