3rd HUSSAR REGIMENT FIRST EMPIRE: STRASBOURG SOLDIERS CARDBOARD FIGURINE gouache painted by the WURTZ family, second third of the 19th century, around 1815-1848. 31156-26

3rd HUSSAR REGIMENT FIRST EMPIRE: SOLDIERS OF STRASBOURG CARDBOARD FIGURINE PAINTED IN GOUACHE by the WURTZ family, second half of the 19th century, around 1815-1848. 31156-26

Three horsemen, height of the base to eye level 10.5 cm.
Glued 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 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 provenance of historical objects, often of great quality. That is why I will open my archives to better 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 antiquarian. In 1926, he lived at 108 rue de Ménilmontant (Paris 20th), far from the preferred 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 from the Consulate, his first beautiful saber; he called it his 'lucky charm' and always kept it.
The profession of antiquarian allowed Saint-Aubin to see and possess these treasured objects 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 diverse. Silent and modest, he had an art and a way 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 store. He received visitors in his apartment, where few objects were found, occupying only a temporary space. Generally, like Paul Jean, he would fetch the items he wanted to sell from the neighboring room and often presented them without saying anything, with a slight smile, or if the presented object was truly exceptional, he would simply say in a low voice, 'It's 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 districts.
His love for the objects from which he parted 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 passed away at the age of 83, taking with him the esteem of all those who knew him, leaving behind the unanimous memory of a man of great moral values."

HISTORY:
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 easily multiply their numbers.
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 young audiences, often colored in a clumsy way, cardboard soldiers are made for adults and guarantee great uniform accuracy, serving as the basis for our modern documentation...
Why do the little soldiers from Alsace stand out? Because they were mostly created by eyewitnesses of the time or their descendants and are often contemporary to the period 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 streets on their way to fight in Germany.
This influx of troops, which lasted more than fifteen years, gave some the idea of capturing these beau militaires in person.
Alsace artists agree to cite Benjamin Zix (1772-1811) as the pioneer of the genre. Anticipating Léopold Beyer, the German Geisler, or the Austrian Klein, the Alsatian Zix gives us a very realistic aspect of the soldier of the time, as he was a fighter himself, often traversing battlefields armed more with a pencil than a rifle. He became an Officer-Draughtsman of the Army.
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 around 30,000 inhabitants, with a permanent garrison of between 6,000 and 10,000 soldiers. However, the city was also the obligatory passage for countless troops of the Revolution and the Grand Army heading to campaigns across the Rhine.
Of all these artists, and for this period, the three most well-known are: Thiébaut Borerst (mistakenly spelled Boersch) (1782-1824), a baker who started drawing around 1800, a nephew of the painter Benjamin Zix, his collection was auctioned in Angers on March 10, 1971, his style is probably the most accomplished. Eugène Nicollet (1802-1872), who painted his soldiers from 1817 (at age 15) for 55 years, his collection is stored at the Compiègne Museum, his style is more naive. Wurtz, to whom we dedicate a specific paragraph. Paul Schmidt, with each figurine annotated on the back with the soldier's name as "sketched," this collection preserved at the Musée de l'Armée in Paris has the characteristic 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 we can also mention Édouard Kratz (1803-1885), Schmidt 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 gathered important documentation on Napoleon's armies. He began making his figurines in 1825 with the help of his son and then his father-in-law Pees. The production was continued by the 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. 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 precise and complete 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.
Wurtz's son, Frédéric Wurtz, probably filled in the uniforms he had not seen himself with other documentary sources.
At 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, 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 senior medical officer; they were exhibited in 1938 and have remained there since.
The expert specialist Christian Blondieau judges Wurtz's style to be comparable to that of Nicollet and Kratz.