2nd HUSSARS REGIMENT FIRST EMPIRE: STRASBOURG SOLDIERS CARDBOARD FIGURINE painted in gouache by the WURTZ family, second half of the 19th century, around 1815-1848. 31156-25

2nd REGIMENT OF HUSSARS FIRST EMPIRE: SOLDIERS FROM STRASBOURG CARDBOARD FIGURINE PAINTED BY THE WURTZ FAMILY, second half of the 19th century, circa 1815-1848. 31156-25

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 antique dealer between the wars. To my knowledge, no biography or article has ever been published about this personality, who is nevertheless well known among collectors and often cited in the provenance of historical objects of great quality. That is why I will open my archives to shed 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; both drew and published their drawings in the magazine 'La Giberne' before 1914.
After the war, he established himself as an antique dealer. In 1926, he lived at 108 rue de Ménilmontant (Paris 20th), far outside the preferred areas of antique dealers. 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 sword; he called it his 'good luck charm' and always kept it.
The profession of antique dealer allowed Saint-Aubin to see and possess these cherished 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 astonishingly diverse. Silent and modest, he had an art and a manner that left an indelible memory among the enthusiasts who knew him.
Like most military object dealers of that time, Marcel Saint-Aubin did not have a shop. He received clients in his apartment, where few objects were displayed and they only occupied a temporary place. Typically, like Paul Jean, he would fetch the objects he wanted to sell from the neighboring room and 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 'It's top-notch...'
In June 1940, during the occupation, he left for Guingamp. He returned to Paris and resettled by the end of 1951, in the house he had acquired, 16 rue Henri Pape, in the 13th arrondissement, once again, far from the antique dealers' district.
His love for the objects he parted with was reflected even 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 who knew him, leaving behind the memory of a man with great moral values."

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
The soldiers from 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 work "Petits soldats de plomb, d'étain, de papier, de carton ... 1765-1965 - Le guide du collectionneur" Editions Le Képi Rouge Paris 1996, specifies about cardboard soldiers:
"[...] Unlike paper soldiers more intended for youth, often colored in a clumsy way, the cardboard soldier is made for adults and ensures a high uniformological precision, which serves as the basis for our modern documentation...
Why do the little soldiers from Alsace stand out? Because they were in most cases created by eyewitnesses of the time or their descendants, and are often contemporary to the era they represent.
During the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, the inhabitants of Strasbourg (then a garrison town) saw a large number of troops with multicolored uniforms passing through their city streets, heading off to battle in Germany.
This influx of troops, lasting more than fifteen years, gave rise to the idea of 'sketching' these beautiful soldiers in action for some.
Alsatian authors agree on citing Benjamin Zix (1772-1811) as the precursor of the genre. Ahead of Léopold Beyer, German Geisler, or Austrian Klein, Alsatian Zix offers a very realistic aspect of the soldiers of that time, as he, being a combatant himself, traversed battlefields more armed with a pencil than a rifle. He became an Officer draftsman of the Army.
From the peace of 1815 until the war of 1914, Strasbourg artists continued this need to draw and paint from generation to generation[...] ".
Under the First Empire, Strasbourg had around 30,000 inhabitants, with a permanent garrison of between 6,000 and 10,000 soldiers. However, this city also served as the obligatory route for countless troops of the Revolution and the Grande Armée heading for campaigns beyond the Rhine.
Among all these artists, and for this period, the three most well-known are: Thiébaut Borerst (erroneously spelled Boersch) (1782-1824) a miller baker who began drawing around 1800, the nephew of the painter Benjamin Zix, his collection was auctioned in Angers on 10 March 1971, his style is probably the most accomplished that we know of. Eugène Nicollet (1802-1872), who painted soldiers from 1817 (at 15 years old) and continued for 55 years, his collection is kept at the Museum of Compiègne, his style is more naive. Wurtz, to whom we dedicate a specific paragraph. Paul Schmidt, whose every figurine is annotated on the back with the name of the soldier thus "sketched", this collection is kept at the Musée de l'Armée in Paris and notably represents the soldiers of the National Guard of Strasbourg, among others.
Other artists also worked in a similar manner: Frédérik Schmidt (born in 1796). But we can also mention Edouard 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 Grande Armée who had gathered extensive documentation on Napoleon's armies. He started the production of his figurines as early as 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), some of the figurines we present have the date 1848 on the back of the cardboard. These figurines are of very high quality. Edward Ryan in his work "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 comprehensively, which is rare in representations of soldiers from Strasbourg.
Wurtz's son, Frédéric Wurtz, likely complemented the uniforms he had not observed himself through other documentary sources.
Upon the fall of the Second Empire, Frédéric Wurtz refused to remain 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 displayed there since.
The specialist expert, Christian Blondieau, assesses Wurtz's style as comparable to that of Nicollet and Kratz.