EUGÈNE LAMI - Important set of eleven drawings - Lot 60

EUGÈNE LAMI - Important set of eleven drawings EUGENE LAMI (1800 - 1890) Important set of eleven drawings forming an illustration cycle for Meyerbeer and Scribe's opera "Les Huguenots". November 1878 Watercolors and gouaches on paper 15 x 22 cm, for each drawing Presented in a single frame, mounted 3 in the first row, 4 in the second and 4 in the third Provenance : - Count Henri Greffulhe (1848-1932) - then by descent and marriage, up to the present day Bibliography: - Lemoisne, Paul-André. L'œuvre d'Eugène Lami (1800-1890) : lithographies, dessins, aquarelles, peintures : essai d'un catalog raisonné. Paris: H. Champion, 1914. n°1490, 1491, 1492, 1494, 1496, 1498, 1499, 1502, 1503, 1504, 1505. Illustrated with - the frontispiece (Lemoisne n°1490) - Le festin chez le comte de Nevers" (Lemoisne no. 1491) - The gardens of Chenonceaux" (Lemoisne no. 1492) - Raoul devant Marguerite de Valois" (Lemoisne no. 1494) - Le Pré aux Clercs" (Lemoisne no. 1496) - The Queen's Arrival" (Lemoisne no. 1498) - La bénédiction des poignards" (Lemoisne no. 1499) - Valentine's fainting spell (Lemoisne n°1502) - Raoul's arrival at the Hôtel de Sens ball (Lemoisne no. 1503) - The Temple cloister (Lemoisne no. 1504) - Raoul's death (Lemoisne n°1505) "Les Huguenots" was a grand opera in five acts and three tableaux by Giacomo Meyerbeer, to a French libretto by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps, premiered on February 29, 1836 at the Paris Opéra, Salle Le Peletier. Featuring the impossible love of a Catholic woman and a Protestant man in France in the summer of 1572, torn apart by the Wars of Religion, the work mobilized the greatest singers of its time: sopranos Dorus-Gras and Falcon, tenor Nourrit and bass Levasseur, under the direction of François-Antoine Habeneck. Les Huguenots is Meyerbeer's most successful opera: between February 29, 1836 and November 23, 1936 (last performance to date), it was performed 1,126 times at the Paris Opéra. Only Gounod's Faust was performed more often. Revived on April 26, 1875 at the Palais Garnier a few months after its inauguration, the 700th performance took place on April 19, 1881; on this occasion, the opera's director invited friends to listen to the performance, broadcast by telephone, in the theater's second basement: this was the first experience in broadcasting a performance. The 1000th performance was celebrated on March 21, 1903. The Greffulhe family counted Eugène Lami as a friend, Henry Figuraot as a regular patron and his sister Jeanne (1850-1891), the future Princess of Arenberg, as a pupil. Comparative works : -E. Lami, Fête chez la princesse de Sagan, watercolor, 53.4 x 38.1 cm, Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum, inv. 37.2607