ABC d’Art (c. 1920)

ABC d’Art: Croquis d’animaux & Lettres ornées [ABC of Art: Animal Sketches & Decorated Letters] (c. 1920)
Miarko (Edmond Bouchard), Colored by Jean Saudé
Portfolio, corner closures with ribbon, Portfolio: H385 x W285 mm. Prints: H380 x W280 mm. 27 folios. Acquired from ADER Nordmann & Dominique, 16 March 2023.
Photos: Books On Books Collection.

Miarko (born Edmond Bouchard, 1889, Kyiv) was an illustrator, caricaturist, painter and expatriate in Paris when he died in 1924. His work followed in the Art Nouveau tradition and appeared in magazines like The Magpie.

Of his limited output, ABC d’Art is probably the best known. Produced by Jean Saudé, it provides a representative link in a chain of alphabet works with which to explore distinctions and affinities among different periods of art. Although Saudé was known for his pochoir work, the varying background colors of ochre, golden yellow, blue gray, mauve, etc., and use of gold paint in Miarko’s plates speak an entirely different language from that of fellow-expatriate Sonia Delaunay’s intense pochoir colors in Alphabet (1972) or even her work in the 1920s. Although some affinity with the woodcut of the horse in C. B. Falls’ ABC Book Boo(1923) can be seen, the handling of color, again, leads in different directions. Add Jasper Johns’ painting Alphabet (1959) to this chain, and marvel at the stylistic differences that arise from the artists’ blending of stencil work and brush work.

Miarko’s portfolio is a cardboard folder with an orange morocco paper spine. Its covers have lithographed illustrations in colors applied. The letters ABC formed by boas on the front cover are almost easily missed for the gamboling chimpanzees. There are twenty-seven lithographed plates in colors and gold. Each letter of the alphabet is rendered as a large initial in gold paint and outlined in another color. The twenty-seventh plate is devoted to the numerals 0-9.

Unlike most animal alphabet books, the animals do not always correspond to the initial they decorate. Rather, each initial corresponds to the first letter of the text beneath. More to the point of its difference from most animal alphabets, this one’s images and text seem to revel in nature’s tooth and claw.