Charles Leandre - A Mes Chers Confreres De La Gravure Et De La Lithographie

Charles Leandre
(Champsecret, 1862 – Paris, 1934)
A mes chers confreres de la gravure et de la lithographie
1926
Lithograph on China paper laid on wove paper
24.5x19.1 cm for the China paper / 29.2x23.7 cm for the wove paper
Signed and dated lower left in the plate "C. Leandre / ce February 3, 1926"
Dedicated in pencil lower left: "To Madame Augustin Fortin / respectful tribute from C. Léandre 1926"
Very good condition of the lithograph on China, the wove paper on which the China is laid shows traces of humidity and insolation.

This lithograph by Charles Leandre depicts an allegory of lithography, represented as a winged female figure kneeling on a lithographic stone, hanging a decoration to a man's buttonhole. Dated February 3, 1926, the lithograph is titled lower right in the plate To my dear colleagues of engraving and lithography, and was produced to serve as a menu for the hundredth "diner de l'epreuve" of the Societe La lithographie. During this dinner was celebrated amongst others the decoration as officer of the Legion of Honor that Leandre had obtained the previous year[1].
On the back of the lithograph, a handwritten mention "Mr d'Esparbes" refers to the writer and drawer Georges d'Esparbes, then curator of the Chateau de Fontainebleau, who presided over this dinner. Maybe this is the lithograph that adorned his menu?
An artist with a fertile imagination, Charles Leandre produced many menu illustrations, as evidenced by the critics of the time: "He produces all the time delicate menus that he improvises effortlessly for […] the dinners of the Cornet, French Pastellists, the Societe du Livre d'Art, the Societe de la Lithographie, each time renewing his patterns in clear and picturesque allegories. »[2]

[1] Louis Paillard, « Art et curiosité. La Fête des lithographes », Le Petit journal, 4 février 1926, p. 2.
[2] J.-R. Thomé, « Les Lithographies de Léandre », L’amateur d’estampes et de livres d’art, Juillet 1934, p. 109.