Lot 48: [Fran‡ois Stroobant (1819-1916), Paulus Lauters (1806-1875) and Th‚odore Fourmois (1817-1871)]

The Rhine. Its Scenery and its Monuments. Drawn from nature by eminent artists with historical and picturesque descriptions. London: [Unger brothers of Berlin for] Willis and Sotheran, 1862. 2o (414 x 305mm). 50 tinted lithographic plates by and after Stroobant (34), Lauters (9) and Fourmois (9). (Some spotting, title to one plate shaved.) Contemporary green half morocco gilt, titled on upper cover, spine in six compartments with raised bands, lettered in the second, the others with repeat pattern of onlaid red morocco roundels with large gilt flower-head tool, within a simple decorative surround, each compartment outlined top and bottom by rules and wavy lines, marbled endpapers, gilt edges (neat repair to upper joint). Provenance : John Nolty (bookplate). AN ATTRACTIVE SERIES OF SOME OF THE MOST ATMOSPHERIC VIEWS OF THE RHINE. The plates are the work of three Belgian artists of the first order: 1. Paulus Lauters, a printmaker, illustrator and painter who trained under the sculptor Charles Malaise and at the Acad‚mie des Beauz-Arts in Brussels and was was appointed professor at the Acad‚mie in 1848. 2. The majority of the images are the work of Fran‡ois Stroobant, who studied under Lauters, as well as working with him at the Dewasme-Pletinckx Co. Stroobant was appointed director of the AcadŠmie de Molenbeek Saint-Jean in Brussels in 1865. 3. Th‚odore Fourmois had earlier collaborated with Lauters on a similar work on the abbey at Villers-la-Ville, published in 1839.