[L’Ensorcelée]
Complete suite of Buhot's six plates:
– “Le Pâtre”;
– “Un Chemin de perdition”;
– “Elle venait lentement”;
– “Thomas Le Hardouay”;
– “La Vision”;
– “L'Enterrement”;
to which is added the portrait of the author by Rajon.
The Lemerre edition of 1878 forms the opening text of the Œuvres complètes of Barbey d’Aurevilly, which the publisher issued until 1889. As Jean-Luc Dufresne recalls, the illustrations for L’Ensorcelée and Le Chevalier Destouches were “produced spontaneously, without any commission” by Buhot, who met Barbey d’Aurevilly in 1872; the writer in turn introduced him to the publisher Alphonse Lemerre. Barbey d’Aurevilly greatly admired Buhot’s work, saying that he “dreamed with a mind identical to [his] own.” Bénézit notes that, for this artist, “the best of his work lies in the delicate illustrations he produced for several of Barbey d’Aurevilly’s novels… As an engraver he distinguished himself through the intense expressiveness of his prints and his deep understanding of light and shadow effects…”
When publishing his volumes, Lemerre sold the suites separately so that they could later be bound into the volumes. Two printings exist: one on laid paper, the other on China paper — the latter particularly rare.