The First "Livre d'Artiste" (1828)

French romantic artist Eugène Delacroix published an illustrated edition of Goethe's Faust:

Faust, Tragédie M.de Goethe, Traduite en Français par M. Albert Stapfer, ornée d'un Portrait de l'Auteur, et de dix-sept dessins composés d'après les principales scènes de l'ouvrage et exécutés sur pierre par M. Eugène Delacroix. The book was published in Paris by Ch. Motte and Sautelet. It contained a frontispiece portrait of Goethe and 17 lithographed plates drawn on stone by Delacroix. This was one of the major art books illustrated by lithography and the beginning of the French tradition of the painter-lithographer, with the artist preparing his own images on stone for the press. It is usually considered the first livre d'artiste.

Though the edition met initially with a hostile reception because of the free, fantastic style of the images, Goethe appreciated their power, writing to Eckermann after he had seen some of the lithographs in November, 1826:

"One must acknowledge that this M. Delacroix has a great talent, which in Faust has found its true nourishment. The French public reproach him for an excess of savage force, but, actually, here it is perfectly suitable . . . If I have to agree that M. Delacroix has surpassed the scenes my writing has conjured up in my own imagination, how much more will readers of the book find his compositions full of reality, and passing beyond the imagery which they envision?" (quoted by Ray, The Art of the French Illustrated Book 1700-1914 [1982] no. 143, p. 208).

Concerning the images Delacroix later remarked:

"The peculiar character of the illustrations themselves invited caricature and confirmed my reputation as one of the leaders of the school of ugliness. Gérare, however, although an academician, complimented me on some of the drawings, particularly that of the tavern" (quoted by Breon Mitchell, The Complete Illustrations from Delacroix's "Faust" and Mante's "The Raven" (1981) vii.)