IMPERIAL GUARD LANCERS FIRST EMPIRE, 1st and 2nd regiments: SOLDIERS OF STRASBOURG CARDBOARD FIGURINE GOUACHE PAINTED BY THE WURTZ FAMILY, SECOND HALF OF THE 19th CENTURY, AROUND 1815-1848. 31156-14

IMPERIAL GUARD LANCIERS OF THE FIRST EMPIRE, 1st and 2nd regiments: STRASBOURG SOLDIERS CARDBOARD FIGURINE painted in gouache by the WURTZ family, second third of the 19th century, around 1815-1848. 31156-14

Four riders, H from the bottom of the base to eye level 10.5 cm.
Mounted on a wooden base.

France.
First half of the 19th century.
Good condition.

PROVENANCE:
Former Wurtz-Pees collection, then Saint-Aubin, and private collection.
Mr. Marcel Saint-Aubin, a collector who became an antiquarian between the World Wars. To my knowledge, no biographies or articles have ever been published about this personality, who is nevertheless known to collectors and frequently cited in the provenance of historical objects, often of high quality. Therefore, I will open my archives to shed more light on this great connoisseur:
"Mobilized during the First World War along with his brother in the infantry, the latter was killed at Verdun. Both shared the same taste for military memorabilia; each drew and published their drawings in the magazine 'La Giberne' before 1914.
After the war, he established himself as an antiquarian. In 1926 he lived at 108 rue de Ménilmontant (Paris 20th), far away from the preferred areas of antique dealers. His choice was in the specialty that had attracted him for a long time: military curiosities. The spark that guided him towards this specialty came from his first find: an officer's saber of light cavalry from the Consulate, his first beautiful saber; he called it his 'good luck charm' and always kept it.
The profession of antiquarian allowed Saint-Aubin to see and possess these highly prized objects for some time. A keen connoisseur, he never made mistakes, and his clients benefited from his knowledge. A passionate researcher, everything he discovered in his life was amazingly varied. Silent and modest, he had an art and a manner that left an indelible memory among the connoisseurs who knew him.
Like most military object dealers of that era, Marcel Saint-Aubin did not have a shop. He received visitors in his apartment, where few objects were displayed and only temporarily. Generally, like Paul Jean, he would fetch the objects he wanted to sell from the next room and would present them mostly without saying anything, with a slight smile, or if the object presented was truly exceptional, he would simply say in a low voice, 'This is top-notch...'
In June 1940, during the occupation, he left for Guingamp. He returned to Paris where he resettled at the end of 1951, in the house he had acquired, 16 rue Henri Pape, in the 13th arrondissement, once again, far from the antique dealer district.
His love for the objects he parted with was evident even in the care he took in their packaging. Very skilled with his hands, he perfectly protected even the most modest piece.
Marcel Saint-Aubin passed away at the age of 83, taking with him the respect of all who knew him, leaving behind a unanimous memory of a man with great moral values."

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
The soldiers of Strasbourg are cardboard figurines, "flat" soldiers, cut from rigid cardboard. In most cases, these soldiers are drawn and then printed on sheets to multiply their numbers more easily.
Christian Blondieau in his book "Petits soldats de plomb, d'étain, de papier, de carton ... 1765-1965 - Le guide du collectionneur" Editions Le Képi Rouge Paris 1996, specifies for cardboard soldiers:
"[...] unlike paper soldiers intended more for youth, often colored in a clumsy way, the cardboard soldier is designed for adults and guarantees a high level of uniform accuracy, which will serve as the basis for our modern documentation...
Why do the little soldiers from Alsace stand out? Because they were often created by eyewitnesses of the time or their descendants, and are often contemporary with the period they represent.
During the wars of the Revolution and the Empire, the inhabitants of Strasbourg (a garrison town at the time) saw a large number of soldiers in multicolored uniforms passing through their streets heading to fight in Germany.
This influx of troops, which lasted for more than fifteen years, inspired some to "sketch" these handsome soldiers on the spot.
Alsatian authors agree on citing Benjamin Zix (1772-1811) as the precursor of the genre. Leading ahead of Léopold Beyer, the German Geisler, or the Austrian Klein, the Alsatian Zix provides a very realistic aspect of the soldiers of the time, as he himself, being a soldier, wandered the battlefields more often armed with a pencil than a rifle. He became an Officer Illustrator of the Army.
From the peace of 1815 to the war of 1914, Strasbourg artists continued for generations to have this need to draw and paint[...]".
During the First Empire, Strasbourg had around 30,000 inhabitants, with a permanent garrison of between 6,000 and 10,000 soldiers, but this city also served as the mustering point for numerous troops from the Revolution and the Grand Army heading off to campaigns beyond the Rhine.
Of all these artists and for this period, the three most well-known are: Thiébaut Borerst (incorrectly spelled Boersch) (1782-1824) a miller baker who began drawing around 1800, nephew of the painter Benjamin Zix, his collection was auctioned off in Angers on March 10, 1971, his style is probably the most accomplished that we know of. Eugène Nicollet (1802-1872) who painted his soldiers from 1817 (he was 15 years old) and did so for 55 years, his collection is kept at the Museum of Compiègne, his style being more naive. Wurtz, whom we dedicate a specific paragraph to. Paul Schmidt, each figurine of which is annotated on the back with the name of the soldier as he was "sketched", this collection is kept at the Museum of the Army in Paris and has the particularity of representing soldiers of the National Guard of Strasbourg, among others.
Other artists also worked in a similar manner: Frédérik Schmidt (born in 1796). But mention should also be made of Édouard Kratz (1803-1885), Schmidt's son (born in 1824), Théodore Carl (born in 1837)...

WURTZ-PEEZ COLLECTION (Würtz in German spelling):
Wurtz began his documentation under the First Empire thanks to his friend J.P. LÉvêque, a former surgeon of the Grand Army who had compiled significant documentation on the armies of Napoleon. He started making his figurines around 1825 with the help of his son and then Pees, his father-in-law. The production was continued by his son, who completed his "Napoleonic" collection with the help of his father-in-law Mr. Pees under the Second Republic (1850), and some of the figurines we are presenting have the date 1848 on the back of the cardboard. These figurines are of very high quality. The author Edward Ryan in his book "Paper Soldiers the illustrated history of printed paper armies of the 18th, 19th & 20th centuries" (Golden Age Editions, London 1995) writes, "the most accurate and complete representation of the troops of the First Empire." Each regiment is represented in all ranks and types of uniforms in a comprehensive manner, which is rare in depictions of Strasbourg soldiers. Frédéric Wurtz, the son of Mr. Wurtz, likely supplemented the uniforms he had not himself observed with other documentary sources.
Upon the fall of the Second Empire, Frédéric Wurtz refused to remain in Strasbourg under Prussian occupation and moved to Paris, where he ran a pharmacy on Boulevard de Clichy. Following his death in 1898, the majority of his collection - nearly 16,000 figurines - was donated to the Army Museum on October 1, 1899, by his widow and his son, a chief medical officer; they were put on display in 1938 and have remained there since. The specialist expert Christian Blondieau finds Wurtz's style comparable to that of Nicollet and Kratz.