Léon Husson [- Sacha Simon]. L’Occupant. Nancy, imprimerie Victor Idoux, novembre 1946. In-folio. 2 blank leaves, 64 unnumbered leaves. 59 lithographed drawings by Léon Husson, with a preface by Sacha Simon. Green morocco-bound, long spine (sun-faded), gilt title, bevelled edges, upper cover featuring a mosaic repeating the front cover illustration showing a golden Wehrmacht soldier with his black shadow, gold fillet on the cuts, inner thick and thin gold fillets , green moiré pastdown and endpapers, double endpaper, gilded head, slipcase edged with green morocco, cover and back preserved.
Limited edition of 200 copies, including 50 deluxe editions watercoloured by Léon Husson, accompanied by a set of black lithographs, numbered from 1 to 50; this copy is curiously marked ‘A’, whereas the justification states that there are only 30 non-commercial copies ‘in black’ – i.e. unwatercoloured – marked A to D.
This copy is enriched by five original pencil portraits used for the printing, with a few variations : II, Johann Bachner, captioned and dated 1942 (lithographed in 1943, with only the name in the caption) ; VII, Ulbert Breitenacher ; X, Victor Schnitzer, captioned « Pour la planche X de ” L’Occupant ” (Type d’Allemand de la Gestapo) » (with only the name in the caption) ; XVIII, Ernst Kupfer ; XXIV, Eduard Bauer.
An original black-ink drawing, signed and dated 1945, on a loose sheet, with a caption in pencil « Germania !.. voila où t’a conduit l’Homme de “Mein Kampf” ». [Germany!… That’s where the man behind “Mein Kampf” has led you ].
“Husson is a caricaturist, explains Sacha Simon, senior correspondent for L’Est Républicain. He captures the defining trait of his subject on the spot, and does so with equal brilliance every time. He is ironic, good-natured, fierce at times, but never bland. All his characters scream with truth. On every page, I recognise the German as I knew him: oblivious, arrogant, easily duped, and equally (as if on cue) sentimental or inhuman. […] Thanks to this album, I have finally come to understand precisely what the occupation was like: we were—you, the civilians; we, the prisoners—guarded in the same way, by the same characters, who are now—and hopefully forever—nothing more than tragic and burlesque puppets, skilfully captured on paper by the ‘Hansi’ of Lorraine”.
Pierre-Olivier Lapie, a Socialist MP for Nancy from 1945 to 1958, remarked that “nothing is more symbolic of the rejection of the horrors of Nazi oppression than these few pages of the Album. With biting irony, Husson lashes out at the boisterous victor, the sinister occupier, and the plundering vanquished. His pen is sharp, every blow lands, and one closes the book with the determination to banish this atrocious and grotesque scourge from France’s future.”
The drawings, dating from 1943–1944, feature three portraits and 28 figures and scenes depicting the German victory and the surrender. Each of the 28 caricatured Germans is given a name alongside a captioned scene: Fritz Welzer, who has bird droppings landed on his helmet and is then urinated on by a dog, exclaims: ‘Those filthy Frenchies are making a mockery of us!’ Otto Krauss, sprawled in his armchair, enjoying a cigar, cynically declares to a lady of high standing: ‘The quality of your cellar, Madam! does not allow me to return the flat to you.’ Hugo Berenbock, witnessing the execution of a resistance fighter, exclaims: “Ha! In a moment, another bit of ‘living space’ for us.” Finally, Erich Meffer, torn apart by a bullet to the gut, is captioned with the ironic phrase “…Caen-style”, not to mention the massacres, torture and looting.
Léon Husson, born in 1898 in Circourt-sur-Mouzon (88) and died in 1983 in Laxou (54), was a painter, watercolourist and engraver who, after being conscripted as a soldier in 1917, painted scenes of life in the trenches and his comrades. In 1923, he joined Art et Publicité, run by Victor Idoux (1888–1945), as a commercial artist. He also worked as an illustrator for newspapers and magazines, as well as on books about Lorraine. He also decorated the Nancy-Thermal swimming pool – which no longer exists – and created panels illustrating the various trades characteristic of Lorraine for the region’s stand at the 1931 Colonial Exhibition.
The Musée des Invalides, which specialises in works depicting the two world wars, holds four of his pieces: The Grenade Attack (1945), Prisoners of the Battle of Metz (1944), which was exhibited at the Salon des Armées in 1951, a wash drawing from 1940 depicting The Exodus, and a gouache from the same year produced in a prisoner-of-war camp.
Henri Marchal’s copy, the author’s brother-in-law, with the dedication « A mon Beau-Frère Henri Marchal avec mon meilleur souvenir. H. Husson. Nancy, 11 mars 1947 », and his bookplate, engraved in blue with the Cross of Lorraine and the Legion of Honour on a background depicting deportation, bearing his prisoner-of-war number.
An exceptional copy.
2 800 €