RÉQUIN, E. Commandant. ~ Silhouettes du front, souvenirs de trente mois de guerre reproductions de quarante dessins, croquis & aquarelles... lettre-préface de M. le Maréchal Joffre, Paris: Devambez, [1917].
Folio (310 × 240 mm), pp. [4], plus 36 coloured plates (complete, some with more than one image) and one facsimile of a letter from Joffre to the artist (22 March 1917). Added at the end are 6 additional drawings with watercolour by Réquin, one dated 1914, the others 1927. Some captions overwritten in pencil by the artist. Inscribed with a pen sketch ‘À Monsieur Paul-Boncour respectueux hommage E Réquin dec 1927’. Contemporary blue cloth, red morocco label to upper cover. Slightly rubbed and faded. An interesting copy.
First edition, one of 275 copies on Hollande (after 20 on Japon) signed by the artist, additionally inscribed by him to French politician Joseph Paul-Boncour in 1927 with a pen sketch and six additional drawings, plus some of the illustrations with captions overwritten by the artist in pencil. Réquin’s collection is valuable as a record of the wide range of nationalities present in the Northern France campaigns in 1917. There are portraits of French, Belgian, British, Scots and Welsh soldiers, but also North African, Sengalese, Indian, Russian, and Turkish troops. This copy was evidently given by the artist to Paul-Boncour as a participant in the 1927 Geneva Conference on arms limitation. Réquin adds six drawings, including four satirical sketches of the Geneva Conference itself (which he probably attended as an official artist). These large sketches include portraits of some of the major participants, including the Eton and Oxford-educated British diplomat Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, one of the architects of the League of Nations. JISC/Copac locates no UK copies.