REVOLUTIONARY HORSE HUNTERS: SOLDIERS FROM STRASBOURG CARDBOARD FIGURINE painted in gouache by the WURTZ family, second third of the 19th century, around 1815-1848. 31156-39

HORSE HUNTERS REVOLUTION: SOLDIERS OF STRASBOURG CARDBOARD FIGURINE painted by the WURTZ family, second half of the 19th century, circa 1815-1848. 31156-39

Four riders, Height from the base 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, is a collector who became an antique dealer between the wars. To my knowledge, no biography or article has ever been published about this personality who is nevertheless known among collectors and often mentioned in the provenance of historical objects of great quality. Therefore, I will open my archives to better introduce this great connoisseur:
"Mobilized during the First World War along with his brother in the infantry, the latter was killed in Verdun. Both shared the same taste for military souvenirs; they both drew and published their drawings in the magazine 'La Giberne' before 1914.
After the war, he settled as an antique dealer. In 1926, he lived at 108 rue de Ménilmontant (Paris 20th), far from the preferred neighborhoods 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 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 varied. Silent and modest, he had an art and a manner that left an unforgettable memory among the amateurs 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 on display and they only occupied a temporary space. Usually, like Paul Jean, he would fetch the objects he wanted to sell from the neighboring room and present them mostly without saying anything, with a slight smile, or if the object being presented 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 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 neighborhood of antique dealers.
His love for the objects from which he parted was reflected 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 died at the age of 83, taking with him the respect of all who knew him, leaving behind the memory of a man of 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 easily multiply their number.
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 about 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 uniform accuracy, which serves as the basis for our modern documentation...
Why do the little soldiers of Alsace stand out? Because they were created in most cases 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 with colorful uniforms passing through their streets heading to fight in Germany.
This influx of troops, which lasted more than fifteen years, gave some the idea to capture these beautiful soldiers in action.
Alsatian authors agree to cite Benjamin Zix (1772-1811) as the genre's precursor. Anticipating Léopold Beyer, the German Geisler, or the Austrian Klein, the Alsatian Zix gives us a very realistic view of the soldiers of the time, as he was a fighter himself, roaming battlefields armed more often with a pencil than a rifle. He became an Army officer-draughtsman.
From the peace of 1815 to the war of 1914, Strasbourg artists continued from generation to generation this need to draw and paint[...]".
During the First Empire, Strasbourg had about 30,000 inhabitants, with a permanent garrison of between 6,000 and 10,000 soldiers, and this city was also the mandatory passage for innumerable troops of the Revolution and the Grande Armée departing for campaigns across the Rhine.
Among all these artists, and for this period, the three most renowned are: Thiébaut Borerst (erroneously spelled Boersch) (1782-1824), a miller who began drawing around 1800, nephew of the painter Benjamin Zix, his collection was auctioned in Angers on March 10, 1971, his style is probably the most accomplished we know. Eugène Nicollet (1802-1872) who painted his soldiers from 1817 (he was 15 years old) and continued for 55 years, his collection is preserved at the Museum of Compiègne, 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 soldier's name as "sketched", this collection kept at the Army Museum in Paris has the characteristic of representing the soldiers of the National Guard of Strasbourg, among others.
Other artists also worked in a similar manner: Frédérik Schmidt (born in 1796). It is also worth mentioning Édouard Kratz (1803-1885), Schmidt's son (born in 1824), Théodore Carl (born in 1837)...

WURTZ-PEEZ COLLECTION (German spelling Würtz):
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 important 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 was continued by the son, who completed the Napoleonic collection with Pees's help under 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 represented in all grades and types of uniforms exhaustively, which is rare in the representations of Strasbourg soldiers.
The son of Mr. Wurtz, Frédéric Wurtz probably supplemented the uniforms he did not observe 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, the majority of his collection - nearly 16,000 figurines - was donated to the Museum of the Army on October 1, 1899, by his widow and his son, a senior doctor; they were exhibited in 1938 and have remained there since.
The expert Christian Blondieau compares Wurtz's style to that of Nicollet and Kratz.