GUÉRIN (Maurice de)

Reliquiae. Published by G. S. Trebutien. Avec une étude biographique et littéraire par M. Sainte-Beuve. Paris, Didier, 1861. 2 volumes, small square in-12, long-grained green morocco, thin twisted gilt fillet, Bibliothèque de Laurent Evrard supra-libris in the center of a gilt medallion, spines decorated with gilt fillets, edge-to-edge lining in the same morocco, inner frame decorated with a set of seven gilt fillets, brown moire endpapers, gilt edges (Chambolle-Duru). First edition, published by Trebutien, who along with Barbey was co-executor of Maurice de Guérin's will. Autograph letter from Trebutien to the artist William Haussoulier: Hommage de l'éditeur à Monsieur William Haussoulier. William Haussoulier (1815-1892) was a friend of Eugénie de Guérin, who introduced him to the author of Les Diaboliques: The ideal artist, of whom Eugénie speaks, is Mr. William Haussoulier [...], a painter, an Ingriste, with whom I was very close, at a certain period, and who had such a lively admiration for Guérin that this admiration was the decisive cause of our friendship. [...] As a painter [...], he made color bark, squeak and howl. Certainly, if he had seen him only once, Haussoulier would have given us some fine portrait of Guérin in the black manner, and what a boon to put at the head of his works! In the somewhat bygone days of his great affair with me, William did a very neat charcoal portrait of me, which is now probably in the Diable's bric-a-brac (Barbey d'Aurevilly, letter to Trebutien, April 2, 1855, in Correspondance générale, IV, p. 195). The portrait of Barbey in the Musée de Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte, reproduced at the head of the 1989 Paris exhibition catalog, is attributed to him. Copy on Hollande paper, bound in doubled morocco by Chambolle-Duru for Laurent Evrard, pseudonym of the Countess de La Baume-Pluvinel (1858-1911), novelist and woman of letters. It was included in the exhibition organized for the centenary of the writer's death at the Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris in 1989 (cf. cat. Barbey d'Aurevilly, no. 64). Some browning, halo pp. 160-163 in volume I and angular wetness to 3 leaves in volume II. Upper hinge of Volume I a little rubbed.