APPIA-DABIT, Béatrice. A la Gloire du vélocipède. Aventures merveilleuses, véritables et sensationnelles. Le Tour du Monde de Léonard Pinardel dit Tournebride.
Douelle, S.e., 1928.

In-4 oblong (364 x 266 mm), (57) pp.
Hardback with beige silk cover.

Original unpublished manuscript of a text written and illustrated by Eugène Dabit's wife.
Béatrice Appia (1899-1998), a French painter of Swiss origin, began exhibiting regularly at the major Parisian annual shows in 1924. Her first watercolour dates from 1910 and she was enrolled at the Beaux-Arts in The Hague by a lady watercolourist in 1920, which launched her into a naive period. That same year, recognised as gifted by her school, she was sent to the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. It was during these studies that she met Dabit, Caillard, Klein and later Maurice Loutreuil, who formed the ‘Pré Saint-Gervais group’.

In 1927, Appia entered her realist period and made a long trip to Morocco with her husband, which was to prove a turning point, since Dabit converted to literature on his return from this artistic trip in 1928. It was surely this trip that inspired the author and illustrator of this book.

A unique work containing XX illustrations, all watercolours, close to naive art. An exceptional work.