Maurice Leloir (1853–1940), Versailles—Colonnade, 1903

Color workshop lithograph printed on tin-coated paper/cardstock, 320 g; 35 x 27 cm within a 48 x 39 cm passe-partout; signed on the plate. Signed lower right “Maurice Leloir”; publisher—Libraire Furne; lithographs executed by Cueille and Bouche


Maurice Leloir was a French illustrator, watercolorist, draftsman, printmaker, writer, and collector. The son and student of painter Auguste Leloir and watercolorist Héloïse Suzanne Colin, daughter of painter Alexandre Colin, he exhibited his paintings and watercolors beginning in 1876 at the Paris Salon, and later at the Salon des Artistes Français, of which he became a member. Along with many other painters, he attended the Crozant School in the Creuse valleys. Around 1890, Maurice Leloir and his students flooded the book market with illustrated works inspired by photographs, faithfully depicting the costumes and postures of the past, which were highly prized by bibliophiles.

In 1884, Guy de Maupassant dedicated the short story “Idyll” to Leloir.

The book covers shown in the renderings are for illustrative purposes only and do not constitute a commercial offer.