Émile Marcelin (1825-1887)

Engraved after a drawing by E. Marcelin

By Henri Beraldi

MARCELIN Émile (his real name was Émile PLANAT), 1825-1887. – From 1850 to 1870 he was, in Le Journal Amusant and L’Illustration at first, later in La Vie Parisienne, which he founded, the special cartoonist for humorous pages on stylish life. 1860 socialites, the Opera of rue Lepelletier and Les Italiens, first nights and parties, dances at the Tuileries and variety shows, feasts and pleasures, Baden and Trouville were his. Marcelin also published a lithographic album: Tobacco and Smokers. From his thousand sketches a timely elegance emanates, despite the humorous intent, and it will always make them interesting to those who do not necesseraly seek a masterpiece, but a document. Marcelin himself was one of those collectors prizing the document in a print: he owned a hundred thousand engravings and this figure alone tells us that he didn’t pursue the perfect print, but information.
“He never bothered to complete series”, said Taine about him, “and along with beautiful prints he bought some mediocre and even some awful ones, and knowing them as such: cartoons, fashion plates, frontispieces and vignettes, but at one condition: they had to be significant and suggestive, they should always illustrate some detail in people’s customs and habits, and bring him closer to people of the past…
What his instinct goaded him to search for, through painted or engraved figures, was the differences in man at different times…”

This article is based on the book by Henri Beraldi Les graveurs du XIXe siècle (XIXth century engravers), Paris, 1885-1891. The original text is available in image mode from Gallica.