The Digital Walters is a branch of The Walters Art Museum Manuscripts Department.
The Digital Walters is a branch of The Walters Art Museum Manuscripts Department.
Clothilde Coulaux, a young French woman living in German-occupied Alsace, created this manuscript in 1906, as described in a colophon accompanying her charming self-portrait on p. 173. All 174 pages are illuminated with a rich variety of imagery, including scenes of everyday life, music, feasting, courtship and child rearing, warfare, and regional architecture, combined with more traditional religious imagery. The latter often draw upon prints by Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein, and other early masters, as well as stained glass, sculpture, and liturgical instruments. Much of the other imagery, however, is uniquely her own. Paintings of her cat looking out a window, or of couples drinking together, add touches of whimsy and humor. Other images are more sobering, such as those of Habsburg eagles and Joan of Arc, and taken together with her choice to write in French while under German rule, suggest a struggle to define her national identity.
Stylized script modeled after cursive gothic book hand
artist: Clothilde Coulaux
Principal cataloger: Herbert, Lynley
Cataloger: Herbert, Lynley
Editor: Herbert, Lynley
Copy editor: Dibble, Charles
Contributor: Herbert, Lynley
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Wiegand, Kimber
Conservator: Polidori, Elisabetta
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
Coomans, Thomas, and Jan De Maeyer, eds. The Revival of Medieval Illumination: Nineteenth-century Belgium Manuscripts and Illuminations from a European Perspective (Renaissance de l'enluminure médiévale: manuscrits et enluminures belges du XIXe siècle et leur contexte européen). Louvain, 2007.
These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.
Molsheim, France
Dated June 29, 1906
book
Original Binding
Contemporary binding of mottled tooled leather with silk doublures, gilt edges
The primary language in this manuscript is French. The secondary language of this manuscript is Latin.
Written and illustrated by Clothilde Coulaux in Molsheim, France
Acquired by Dorine van Heerdt tot Eversberg, Fine Medieval Books, Amsterdam, before 2007
Maggs Bros., Ltd., London, 2014
Les Enluminures, New York and Chicago, 2014-2015
Museum purchase with funds provided by the W. Alton Jones Foundation Acquisition Fund, 2016
Molsheim, France
Dated June 29, 1906
book
The primary language in this manuscript is French. The secondary language of this manuscript is Latin.
Written and illustrated by Clothilde Coulaux in Molsheim, France
Acquired by Dorine van Heerdt tot Eversberg, Fine Medieval Books, Amsterdam, before 2007
Maggs Bros., Ltd., London, 2014
Les Enluminures, New York and Chicago, 2014-2015
Museum purchase with funds provided by the W. Alton Jones Foundation Acquisition Fund, 2016
Clothilde Coulaux, a young French woman living in German-occupied Alsace, created this manuscript in 1906, as described in a colophon accompanying her charming self-portrait on p. 173. All 174 pages are illuminated with a rich variety of imagery, including scenes of everyday life, music, feasting, courtship and child rearing, warfare, and regional architecture, combined with more traditional religious imagery. The latter often draw upon prints by Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein, and other early masters, as well as stained glass, sculpture, and liturgical instruments. Much of the other imagery, however, is uniquely her own. Paintings of her cat looking out a window, or of couples drinking together, add touches of whimsy and humor. Other images are more sobering, such as those of Habsburg eagles and Joan of Arc, and taken together with her choice to write in French while under German rule, suggest a struggle to define her national identity.
Stylized script modeled after cursive gothic book hand
artist: Clothilde Coulaux
Principal cataloger: Herbert, Lynley
Cataloger: Herbert, Lynley
Editor: Herbert, Lynley
Copy editor: Dibble, Charles
Contributor: Herbert, Lynley
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Wiegand, Kimber
Conservator: Polidori, Elisabetta
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
Coomans, Thomas, and Jan De Maeyer, eds. The Revival of Medieval Illumination: Nineteenth-century Belgium Manuscripts and Illuminations from a European Perspective (Renaissance de l'enluminure médiévale: manuscrits et enluminures belges du XIXe siècle et leur contexte européen). Louvain, 2007.
These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.
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