c. 1970 – Pellerin – Cadet Roussel

Title:                      “CADET ROUSSEL EST BON ENFANT…”​
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Description:

Cadet Roussel, the comic hero of one of France’s best-loved songs, “Cadet Rousselle” (1792), whose refrain the caption quotes: “Ah! ah! ah! oui vraiment, Cadet Rousselle est bon enfant!” The song is said to have been inspired by Guillaume Joseph Rousselle, a court bailiff of Auxerre, and its verses mock his three houses, three coats and three hats, none of them quite right.

Here he strides along in his famous eccentric outfit: a huge bicorne hat, a lorgnette on a long handle, a ruffled shirt, a yellow tailcoat flapping in the wind, a red sash with dangling watch fobs, blue breeches and striped stockings. His red umbrella is torn, with swallows perched on top, and a dog and a cat trot at his heels.

An image d’Épinal from the Imagerie Pellerin in Épinal, printed in black and coloured by stencil (pochoir) in bright, flat colours. It is printed on fine Arches mould-made paper with deckle edges and the “Arches” watermark, made at the historic paper mill of Arches, just a few kilometres from Épinal. A copy of this image in the Museum Europäischer Kulturen in Berlin is recorded as printed in 1970 from the original woodblock.

Artist:                   Guillaume Joseph Rousselle

Publisher:          Pellerin, Épinal (“De la Fabrique de Pellerin, Imprimeur-Libraire à Épinal”)
Sheet size:          25,3 x 32,8 cm
Year:                     c. 1970
Technique:         print, coloured by stencil (pochoir), on Arches paper

Condition:
Good condition. Bright colours, deckle edges; light toning and a few small spots in the margins.
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This is an original print published by the Imagerie Pellerin in Épinal circa 1970 and NOT a modern photographic reproduction.

On your request I will provide a Certificate of Authenticity