Manon Lescaut at Ship Antique Print ~ Charles-Edouard Delort

Antique Goupil & Cie. photogravure print from the picture by Charles-Edouard Delort.

Printed on mid-weight ivory colored stock. Reverse side is blank.

Title: The Embarkment of Manon Lescaut

Publication: The Masterpieces of French Art

Publication Year: 1883

Approximate Page Size (in inches): 14 x 11

Approximate Image Size (in inches): 10½ x 7

Condition: Some light foxing in margin area. Small spot at bottom margin. Image area is in very good overall condition. Atticpaper.com watermark does not appear on actual print.

This picture presents a critical incident in the Abbe Prevost's tragic romance of Manon Lescaut. Manon's idolatrous passion for her lover impels her to every sacrifice, even that of honor. Her devotion is ardently reciprocated. The parents of the young man, who is of excellent family, at length procure an order for Manon's transportation, with a view to the effectual separation of the lovers. But the Cheva- lier follows Manon from Paris to Havre, where he rejoins her at the moment of embarkation, and resolves to abandon every other tie and link his destiny to hers. In his well-studied and masterly picture, M. Delort portrays the scene in which the lovers look for the last time on their native land, which they are now to exchange for the unknown trials of a penal colony. Our attention is first arrested by the grand old Transport-ship, a splendid specimen of the naval architecture of the last century. We next revert naturally to the passengers mounting the ship's side, and to those in the boats below, whose movements and exchange of greetings and adieus are so faithfully portrayed that the scene is made real to us. But soon our sympathetic regards are riveted upon the nearest boat, which is itself a picture of rare excellence and pathos. Here are the hapless lovers, who, perhaps, with all their present pain and anxious forebodings, little think how soon Death will remorselessly tear them asunder.