De la Nature; De Rerum Natura. by LUCRETIUS [author] LEOPOLD-LEVY [illustrator] - 1934

Paris: Galerie "Le Nouvel Essor", 1934. One of 30 copies with an extra suite of the illustrations (of an edition of 99). Folio. (11 1/4 x 13 1/2 inches). There are three bifoliums; the first has the title, a Leopold-Levy engraving and the colophon (signed in pencil by the artist); the second merely bears the technical acknowledgments (e.g. Typoigraphie de Phillipe Gonin); and the third is blank but for a long presentation pencil inscription by Leopold-Levy thanking a collaborator). Next comes the extra suite of plates. They are housed in their own paper fold-over case on the front of which the artist has written in pencil: Examplaire No. 6 suite, LL., Finally comes the text which also has its own wrap-around paper cover with the title on from. 100. pp. with Leopold-Levy engravings throughout. All housed in the publisher faux-wood chemise which is in the publisher's matching slipcase. Some uplifting of the material on the top of the slipcase but, overall, a wonderfully clean and lovely copy.This is considered Leopold-Levy's masterpiece,. Leopold-Levy was the last child of a family of industrialists. Originally from Selestat in Alsace, his father opted for France in 1870 to escape the German subjection. Amateur of art, he frequented the Hotel Drouot, collected the works of Courbet, Corot and this gave his son the taste of painting. In 1900, the artist exhibited his paintings for the first time at the Salon des Indépendants, in the barracks of the Cours de la Reine. From 1927, he lived between Aix-en-Provence and Paris, which he left in 1936, to direct the painting department of the Beaux-Arts of Istanbul. During these years of teaching, he only exhibited twice, at the Istanbul Academy of Arts and the French Consulate. He died in 1996.