Alexandre Iacovleff (1887 - 1938)

1558

Alexandre Iacovleff

Les dessins & peintures d'Afrique

Drawings and painting of Africa

Paris: Lucien Vogel, 1927

410 x 305 mm. 50 plates

Edition: 1,020. Copy nr. 42

In October 1924, after careful and painstaking preparation, Citroën’s Croisière Noir (the Black Crusade) Expedition, headed by Haardt and Andouin-Dubreuil, left for a trip by half-track vehicles through the heart of Africa whose purpose was to trace a route which the French government might follow in building a railroad. Soon the expedition was broadened by official missions of the French Colonial Office, the French Natural History Museum and the French Geographical Society and got a more scientific and cultural aim. Alexandre Iacovleff was appointed official artist to the expedition whose mission was to depict the interesting beauties of this revealing journey of a little-known world. He had gained fame with his sketches and drawings of  the Far East and he was happy to join a new expedition. After returning to Paris in July 1925 an exhibition of his works was held in the Gallery Charpentier and in the Louvre. They had an immediate success. People were enchanted by these images, only a small selection of the more than 400 painting and drawings he had made during the expedition. Soon after, this beautiful, leather bound cassette with 50 colour reproductions was on sale.

References:

Haardt 2000. p. 29

Seslavinskii 2009, pp. 448-461