Gaston Goor

 

(1902-1977)

Le Bibliophile Barthou

 

Etching

 

Image size (platemark) 8.5 X 13 cm

 

Louis Barthou (1862-1934) was a French politician who served as prime minister in 1913. Barthou was killed in Marseilles during the shooting of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia by the Bulgarian revolutionary Vlado Chernozemski.

 

Barthou was an enthusiastic book and manuscript collector.

 

This portrait was created as the fronticepiece for a book on Barthou by Charles Maurras entitled "Le Bibliophile Barthou" - it is the artist's proof for the book. (Anotated "Etat pour Bibliophile Barthou" in the lower left margin).

 

Condition: Sheet is spotted and stained in the margins. The center of the image is in good condition except for a dark streak on the right hand side (seen extending towards the back of the sitters head)

 

The French painter and illustrator Gaston Goor was a highly accomplished graphic artsist whose works were controversial for his often openly homosexual themes.

 

He was active as a book illustrator, notably for the gay writer and diplomat Roger Peyrefitte, who was one of his principal patrons.

 

Gaston Goor is listed in the Benezit Dictionary of Artists which provides an extensive list of his illustrated books including "Le Voyage de Shakespeare," by Leon Daudet, Le Jardin des Letters by Jacques Bainvilles Motherland and Contes Philosophiques by Charles Maurras.