Autonome

Cette deuxième couverture pour Le Rire est la seule dont une épreuve d’essai photogravée tirée en noir et blanc subsiste (fig. A). Ce document constitue l’une des étapes du procédé de mise en couleur (à ce sujet, voir ici).

Comme celles des autres dessins de Vallotton parus dans Le Rire, la légende est certainement de Jules Renard (sur cette question, voir ici).

La dimension humoristique du dessin est analysée en 1904 par Frank L. Emanuel : « Vallotton adds a keen sense of humour to his great ability as a draughtsman. Look at his coloured drawing Don’t Move, in Le Rire, where we see a petty official and his family, tidied up for the occasion, being photographed on a national fête day. A typical photographer, engrossed in his work, counts one! two! three! preparatory to removing the cap from his camera. So engrossed in his counting is he that he does not notice that his carefully composed group is becoming rapidly discomposed. In the foreground is fat nou-nou, beaming down at the youngest hopeful in her arms; yet more bulgy maman swerves over to tickle her youngest, while the next eldest clutches her mother’s skirts in terror of the great ugly man with the camera. / In the background is the father of the family, looking over his wife’s shoulder at the baby; while he places one hand on the shoulder of his eldest boy, who is rapidly outgrowing his knickerbockers, but is nevertheless determined to ‹come out well› in the group. The party is completed by the grown-up sister, who toys coyly with a straw flower lent her for that exact purpose. » (Emanuel, 1904, pp. 36-37).

Le titre du dessin est assorti d’un point d’exclamation (« Ne bougeons plus ! ») dans certains exemplaires de ce numéro du Rire (voir par exemple ici). En ce qui concerne les différences d’un fascicule à l’autre pour un même numéro du Rire, voir ici.

Dessin de F. Vallotton

1895LRZ265

«Ne bougeons plus [dessin]»

1895

«Ne bougeons plus, dessin p Rire 60»

Emanuel, 1904, pp. 36–37

St-James, 1979, n^o 21