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Bayard, Émile-Antoine.

[Rosalind Gives Orlando Her Necklace].

[Paris?, c. 1887]. India ink, wash, gouache and pencil on paperboard, 15” x 11” plus margins; signed, lower left. CONDITION: Good, some light discoloration to image, residual glue and surface loss to margins from early matting.

The elegant, original illustration for the frontispiece to the International Shakespeare edition of As You Like It (London: Cassell & Co., 1887).

The moment depicted here occurs in Act 1, Scene 2, when Rosalind gives her necklace to Orlando for his gallantry following his wrestling match with Charles, saying “Gentleman, wear this for me, one out of suits with Fortune, / That could give more, but that her hand lacks means.” Cecilia and Touchstone look on; a defeated Charles is carried away, stage right.

Émile-Antoine Bayard (1837–1891) was born in La Ferté-sous-Jouarre, Seine-et-Marne, France. He studied for five years with the French history and portrait painter Léon Cogniet and worked as an illustrator of current events for various magazines in the 1860s and 70s. Thereafter, he turned his hand to illustrating literary works, including Robinson Crusoe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Les Misérables and others.

Item #3507

Price: $2,500.00