REGIMENT OF THE GUIDES FIRST EMPIRE: STRASBOURG SOLDIERS CARDBOARD CUTOUT GOUACHE FIGURE painted by the WURTZ family, second half of the 19th century, around 1815-1848. 31156-21

REGIMENT DES GUIDES FIRST EMPIRE: STRASBOURG SOLDIERS CARDBOARD CUTOUT GOUACHE FIGURE painted by the WURTZ family, second half of the 19th century, around 1815-1848. 31156-21

Five cavalrymen, H from the base 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, is a collector turned antiquarian between the wars. To my knowledge, no biography or article has ever been published about this personality who is nevertheless known to collectors and often cited in the provenances of historical objects of great quality. That is why I will open my archives to better make known this great connoisseur:
"Mobilized during the First World War, as well as his brother in the infantry, the latter was killed at Verdun. Both shared the same tastes 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 20th), very far from the favorite neighborhoods of antiquarians. His choice focused on the specialty that had attracted him for a long time: military curiosity. The spark that led him to this specialty came from his first find: an officer's saber from the Consulate era, 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 objects that he so appreciated for a while. A fine connoisseur, he never made a mistake and his clients benefited from his knowledge. A passionate researcher, everything he discovered in his life was surprisingly varied. Silent and modest, he had an art and a way that left an indelible memory with the enthusiasts who knew him. Like most dealers of military objects of that time, Marcel Saint-Aubin did not have a store. He received clients in his apartment, few objects were there and they only occupied a temporary place. Generally, like Paul Jean, he would fetch the objects he wanted to sell in the nearby room and presented them most of the time without saying anything, with a slight smile, or if the object presented 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 where he resettled at the end of 1951, in the house he had acquired, 16 rue Henri Pape, in the 13th arrondissement, once again, very far from the antique dealer district. His love for the objects he parted with was reflected in the care he took in packaging them. Very skillful with his hands, he perfectly protected even the most modest piece. Marcel Saint-Aubin died at the age of 83, taking with him the esteem of all those who knew him, leaving behind a lasting memory of a man with great moral values."

HISTORY:
The Strasbourg soldiers are cardboard figurines, "flat" soldiers, cut out of rigid cardboard. In most cases, these soldiers are drawn and then printed in sheets to more easily multiply their numbers.
Christian Blondieau in his book "Small Soldiers of Lead, Tin, Paper, Cardboard... 1765-1965 - The 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 guarantees great uniformological precision, which will serve as the basis for our modern documentation...
Why do the small soldiers from Alsace stand out? Because they were mostly created by eyewitnesses of the time or their descendants, and are often contemporary with 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 with colorful uniforms passing through their city heading to fight in Germany.
This influx of troops, which lasted more than fifteen years, gave some the idea to capture these handsome soldiers in action.
Alsatian authors agree to cite Benjamin Zix (1772-1811) as the precursor of the genre. Ahead of 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 himself, a combatant, traversed the battlefields more often armed with a pencil than a rifle. He became an Artist Officer of the Army.
From the peace of 1815 to the war of 1914, Strasbourg artists continued from generation to generation this need to draw and paint[...]".
Under the First Empire, Strasbourg had about 30,000 inhabitants, with a permanent garrison of between 6,000 and 10,000 soldiers, but this city also saw countless troops of the Revolution and the Grande Armée passing through on their way to campaigns across the Rhine.
Of all these artists, and for this period, the three most well-known are: Thiébaut Borerst (misspelled Boersch) (1782-1824) a miller baker who began drawing around 1800, a nephew of the painter Benjamin Zix, with his collection being auctioned off in Angers on March 10, 1971, his style is likely the most refined that we know. Eugène Nicollet (1802-1872) who painted his soldiers from 1817 (he was 15) for 55 years, his collection is kept at the Compiègne Museum, his style is more naive. Wurtz, to whom we dedicate a specific paragraph. Paul Schmidt, whose each figurine is annotated on the back with the name of the soldier as "sketched", this collection kept at the Museum of the Army in Paris has the characteristic of representing the soldiers of the National Guard of Strasbourg, among others. Other artists also worked in the same manner: 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 under the First Empire thanks to his friend J.P LÉvêque, a former surgeon of the Grande Armée who had gathered important documentation on the armies of Napoleon. He began making his figurines as early as 1825 with the help of his son and then Pees, his father-in-law. The production was continued by the son who completed his collection with the help of his father-in-law Mr. Pees under the Second Republic (1850), some of the figurines we present have the date 1848 on the back of the cardboard. These figurines are of very high quality. 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 comprehensive representation of the troops of the First Empire." Each regiment is represented in all ranks and types of uniforms exhaustively which is rare in the representations of Strasbourg soldiers. Mr. Wurtz's son, Frédéric Wurtz, likely completed the uniforms he did not observe himself through other documentary sources.
Upon the fall of the Second Empire, Frédéric Wurtz refused to stay in Strasbourg under Prussian occupation and came to settle in Paris on 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 remained there since. Specialist expert Christian Blondieau judges Wurtz's style to be comparable to that of Nicollet and Kratz.