Albert MORAND (XIX-XXth) Soldiers of the Great... Lot 89

Albert MORAND (XIX-XXth) Soldiers of the Great War. Drawings: graphite, watercolor, colored pencils Various sizes. Some signed or monogrammed, one located and dated "1918". Set of 10 p. Provenance: The Saint-Lazare prison, located at 107 rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis, was "at the same time a house of arrest, justice, correction and correctional education for young girls detained by paternal correction. It housed accused persons and those charged with offences and crimes, those sentenced to less than a year's imprisonment, those detained for debts owed to the State and, from 1836 onwards, prostitutes deprived of their liberty by judgement or administrative decision, who were confined to the infirmary or the prison (until then they had been locked up in the Madelonnettes). It also served as a municipal detention centre for minors arrested in flagrante delicto for prostitution on the public highway, as a hospice for syphilitics and as a hospital. The prison was divided into three quarters: the judicial quarter or first section reserved for common law prisoners, the administrative quarter or second section for public girls, and the infirmary for the sick, especially girls suffering from venereal diseases. In the first section, about a hundred cells were reserved for young prisoners and a number of convicted women. These cells, in the so-called "menagerie" area, were fitted with bars and grills that prevented neither cold nor odours. The cloisters served as dormitories. In the second section, the ground floor contained the kitchens, the rooms for pharmaceutical preparations and the baths, and was topped by two floors of infirmary. The same rooms served as dormitory, refectory and workshops. In the attic, a dormitory with a hundred beds was reserved for "submissive girls". In 1868, there were 992 women prisoners. In addition, Saint-Lazare housed the laundry, the bakery of the Seine prisons and the general store for the supply of clothes and shoes for the prison administration. "The prison was closed in 1932 and demolished between 1935 and 1940 (Source: criminocorpus.org - C. Carlier, C. Prade, M. Renneville, "Brève histoire des prisons de Paris, de la prise de la Bastille à l'ouverture de Fresnes"). Our drawings offer a striking picture of the places, both inside and outside. We see the courtyards where the women are herded together, the showers, the breakfast room, the refectory and the chapel where they seem to be mere shadows, the miserable cells, but also on many occasions the staircases which seem to have fascinated the artist. They are also the occasion for poignant and realistic portraits where the inmates are captured in all their solitude and isolation. They are depicted in their humble activities: sewing, laundry, loading sheets, washing dishes, cooking, supervised by nuns and female guards. Provenance: Dr René-Jean César (1919-2013).