37. Marcellin Desboutin
(1823-1902)
Dailly in the Role of Mes-Bottes in Zola’s “L’Assommoir”

(click on image to print)
Desboutin: Dailly

Dailly in the Role of Mes-Bottes in Zola’s “L’Assommoir”

Drypoint, 1876, 183 x 111 mm., Clément-Janin 58, ex collection: British and Foreign Artists Association (not in Lugt). Fine impression on simili-japon with good margins. Dailly was a comic actor with the Comédie Française, first name apparently unknown, and the role of Mes-Bottes is the only possibly comic role in an otherwise distinctly gloomy naturalistic drama. But there are problems here. The print ostensibly dates from 1876. L’Assommoir was first published as a novel in 1877 and the first stage adaptation does not seem to have been made until 1879. Any expert on the French theater in the nineteenth century who is able to reconcile these dates is invited to contact us. But it is an attractive print by a fine and neglected artist.