IMPERIAL GUARD DRAGOONS AND MILITARY SCHOOL OF SAINT GERMAIN FIRST EMPIRE: SOLDIERS OF STRASBOURG CARDBOARD FIGURINE GOUACHE PAINTED BY THE WURTZ FAMILY, SECOND HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY, AROUND 1815-1848. 31156-18

IMPERIAL GUARD DRAGONS AND MILITARY SCHOOL OF SAINT GERMAIN FIRST EMPIRE: STRASBOURG SOLDIERS GOUACHE-COLORED CARDBOARD FIGURINE by the WURTZ family, second third of the 19th century, around 1815-1848. 31156-18

Two 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, was a collector turned antiquarian between the two world wars. To my knowledge, no biography or article has ever been published about this personality, who is nevertheless known to collectors and frequently cited in the provenance of historical objects of great quality. That is why 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 love for military memorabilia; both 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 20ᵉ), quite far from the favorite districts of antiquarians. His choice focused on the specialty that had attracted him for a long time: military curiosities. The spark that led him to 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 job of an antiquarian allowed Saint-Aubin to see and possess these highly appreciated objects for a while. A fine 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 way that left an indelible memory with the enthusiasts who knew him.
Like most military object dealers of that time, Marcel Saint-Aubin did not have a shop. He would receive visitors in his apartment, where few objects were present, and they only occupied a temporary place. Generally, like Paul Jean, he would go to the neighboring room to get the items he wanted to sell and would present them often without saying anything, with a slight smile, or if the presented object was truly exceptional, he would simply say without raising his voice, 'This is top-notch...'.
In June 1940, during the occupation, he left for Guingamp. He returned to Paris and 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 antiquarian district.
His love for the objects he parted with was evident in the care he took in packaging them. 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 esteem of all who knew him, leaving behind the lasting memory of a man with great moral values."

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
The Strasbourg soldiers 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 "Little Soldiers of Lead, Tin, Paper, Cardboard... 1765-1965 - A Collector's Guide" Editions Le Képi Rouge Paris 1996, specifies for cardboard soldiers:
"[...] unlike paper soldiers intended more for youth, often colored in a clumsy manner, the cardboard soldier is made for adults and ensures a high level of uniformological precision, which will serve as the basis for our modern documentation...
Why do the little soldiers from Alsace hold a reference? Because they were made by eyewitnesses of the time or their descendants in most cases, and are often contemporary to the era they represent.
During the wars of the Revolution and the Empire, the inhabitants of Strasbourg (then a garrison town) saw a large number of soldiers in colorful uniforms passing through their city, heading off to fight in Germany.
This surge of troops, which lasted for more than fifteen years, inspired some to 'sketch on the go' these beautiful soldiers.
Alsace's authors agree in mentioning Benjamin Zix (1772-1811) as the genre's precursor. Preceding Léopold Beyer, the German Geisler, or the Austrian Klein, the Alsatian Zix gives us a very realistic aspect of the soldiers of the time, as he was a combatant himself, often traversing battlefields armed more with a pencil than a rifle. He became an Army Officer draftsman.
From the peace of 1815 to the war of 1914, Strasbourg artists continued this need to draw and paint from generation to generation [...]."
During the First Empire, Strasbourg had approximately 30,000 inhabitants, with a permanent garrison of between 6,000 and 10,000 soldiers. This city was also the obligatory passage for countless troops of the Revolution and the Grande Armée heading out for campaigns across the Rhine.
Among all these artists, the three most well-known for this period are: Thiébaut Borerst (spelled Boersch by mistake) (1782-1824), a baker who started drawing around 1800, and Benjamin Zix's nephew, his collection was auctioned in Angers on March 10, 1971, and 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) for 55 years, his collection is preserved at the Museum of Compiègne, with a more naïve style. Wurtz, to whom we dedicate a specific paragraph. Paul Schmidt, each figurine of his annotated on the back with the name of the soldier thus "sketched", this collection is kept at the Army Museum in Paris and features soldiers of the National Guard of Strasbourg, among others.
Other artists have also worked in the same way: Frédérik Schmidt (born in 1796). But we can also mention Édouard Kratz (1803-1885), Schmidt's son (born in 1824), Théodore Carl (born in 1837)...

WURTZ-PEEZ COLLECTION (Würtz German spelling):
Wurtz began his documentation during the First Empire thanks to his friend J.P LÉvêque, a former surgeon of the Grande Armée who had gathered significant documentation on Napoleon's armies. He started making his figurines in 1825 with the help of his son and then Pees, his father-in-law. The production continued under his son's guidance, who completed the collection with the help of his father-in-law Mr. Pees in a "Napoleonic" style during the Second Republic (1850); some of the figurines we present bear the date 1848 on the back of the cardboard. These figurines are of very high quality. 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 precise and complete representation of the troops of the First Empire." Each regiment is portrayed in all ranks and types of uniforms comprehensively, which is rare in the representations of Strasbourg soldiers.
Frédéric Wurtz, Monsieur Wurtz's son, likely filled in the uniforms he had not personally observed using other documentary sources.
After the fall of the Second Empire, Frédéric Wurtz refused to stay in Strasbourg under Prussian occupation and moved to Paris, boulevard de Clichy, where he ran a pharmacy. Following his death in 1898, most of his collection - nearly 16,000 figurines - was donated to the Musée de l’Armée on October 1, 1899, by his widow and his son, a medical major; they were exhibited in 1938 and have been there since.
Specialist expert Christian Blondieau judges Wurtz's style as comparable to that of Nicollet and Kratz.