Adrien Marie - Sulpice Threw Himself At Adrienne's Feet - Drawing Signed Lower Left

Trained at the School of Fine Arts in Paris, Adrien Marie exhibited from 1867 at the Salon, paintings and watercolors. He also joined the Society of French Watercolourists from 1887. In parallel with this official career, he worked as an illustrator for the press and for several book publishers. Among the authors whose works he illustrates are the great names of French literature, including Molière, Victor Hugo, Alphonse Daudet and Jules Verne.
Our drawing was created to illustrate the novel Monsieur le Ministre by Jules Claretie, published in 1886. This book describes the meteoric rise of a brilliant and enthusiastic young politician, Sulpice Vaudrey, who moved to Paris and had just been appointed Minister , as well as his equally rapid fall, when he had to gradually renounce all his principles and all his illusions.
Entitled Sulpice threw himself at Adrienne's feet, this drawing enhanced with gouache served as the model for the eighth of the book's ten etchings made by Wallet from drawings by Adrien Marie. True to the text, the composition illustrates one of the stages of his descent into hell, when his young wife, Adrienne, discovers in the newspapers that her husband is cheating on her. Virtuous, naive and whole, she sacrificed everything to follow him to Paris but, unlike him, will not be able to deny his principles to find the strength to forgive him for his infidelity.
A copy of the illustrated novel is attached to the drawing.