The Old Blackhorse, Blackhorse Road, Skeyton, Norwich, Norfolk, NR10 5DJ, England www.riley-smith.com Mobile: + 44 (0)7771 552509 [email protected] Edouard-Antoine Marsal (1845-1929) La Fondation du Félibrige, Les Sept Primadiers, 21 May 1854 Châteauneuf de Gadagne, Château de Font-Ségunge, Vaucluse Black and white chalk on blue paper 610 x 750 mm Signed and dated ‘E Marsal/ 1885’ lower right, mounted and in a contemporary simple gilt frame, glazed. The drawing illustrates the seven founders of the Félibrige movement in animated conversation within the courtyard of the Château de Font-Ségunge, Vaucluse, 9km from Avignon and home of Paul Giera. [from left to right] Alphonse Tavan (1833-1905) of Châteauneuf de Gadague-Rognac, poet, author of Vido Vidanti; Frédéric Mistral (1830-1914) of Maillane, author of Li Prouvençau 1852 Mirèio 1859 Calendau 1867 Lis Isclo d’or 1876 Lou Trésor dóu Félibrige 1878-86, Nobel Prize for Literature 1904; Joseph Roumanille (1818-1891) the Avignon publisher and bookseller, author of Li Margarideto 1847; Théodore Aubanel (1829-1886) the finest lyric poet of modern Provençal literature, and the master of modern Provençal drama, Avignon publisher and printer, author of Lou mióugrano entre-duberto 1860 Lou pan dou peccat 1882, Li Fiho d’Avignoun 1883, Lou Raubatòri 1872, Lou Rèire-Soulèu 1899; Anselme Mathieu (1828-1925) of Châteauneuf du Pape Jean Brunet (1834-1894) artist. [with his back to the viewer of the drawing] Paul Giera (1816-1861) known as Glaup; In 1854, Théodore Aubanel, together with six others, among them the Nobel prize winner Frédéric Mistral, founded the influential Provençal literary movement called Le Félibrige. Their aim was to promote the Provençal language, to purify the language, in part by codification of its spelling system, and, most of all, to return the language to the glory it possessed in the late Middle Ages. They called themselves félibres in reference to an old Provençal tale in which the infant Jesus is 1 The Old Blackhorse, Blackhorse Road, Skeyton, Norwich, Norfolk, NR10 5DJ, England www.riley-smith.com Mobile: + 44 (0)7771 552509 [email protected] found disputing in the temple among ‘li sét felibre de la léi’ (the seven doctors of law). Provenance: Musée Théodore Aubanel, Avignon 1885-2001 Hamish Riley-Smith, Swanton Abbot, Norfolk, England 2001 bought from Galerie Decagogne (Arnold Valz-Blin), Avignon in June 2001 2 .