Portefeuille ethnographique, Engelmann
Arts and Literature

Godefroy Engelmann, printer-lithographer

The Mulhouse Municipal Library holds hundreds of prints identified as from lithographer Godefroy Engelmann: lithographs, chromolithographs, treatises on lithography, etc. The collection is augmented each year by acquisitions of works by Godefroy Engelmann, such as this autograph manuscript collection and the Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane, a suite of 24 prints, both acquired in 2020.

Born in Mulhouse on 17 August 1788, Godefroy Engelmann learnt drawing in Paris and attended Regnault's studio, before working as a draughtsman in an Indian factory. In 1809, he married Anne-Catherine Thierry, the daughter of his employer.
Inspired in 1813 by the lithographs a friend brought back from Germany, after a few attempts and a trip to Munich to acquire presses and stones, he set up a small press at the Musée des Beaux-arts in Mulhouse. On 8 March 1815, with the help of Jean Zuber, the son of a wallpaper manufacturer, he founded the Société lithotypique du Haut-Rhin "for engraving of all kinds, according to processes already known and used in Germany, particularly in Munich under the name of lithography". The treaty provided for the possibility of setting up operations outside of Alsace.
In June 1816, Engelmann came to Paris with his brother-in-law Pierre Thierry and set up a printing shop at 18, rue Cassette; to comply with the ordinance of 8 October 1817, he was granted a patent. As he could only have one patent, he was granted a "provisional tolerance" for Mulhouse on 4 December 1817.

Returning to Mulhouse after 1833, Godefroy Engelmann went into partnership with his son Jean to create the company "Engelmann père et fils". In 1830, the printing shop received a 30,000 franc loan from the government to support the book industry; by the time Godefroy Engelmann died, the company had only repaid about half of the loan.

He was very active in promoting and perfecting lithography. In October 1815, he sent lithographic printing proofs to the Société d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale. At the meeting of the Académie des Beaux-arts of 3 August 1816, he and Antoine Pierre Mongin presented "a series of lithographic engravings and [they] explained to him the various improvements they had made to this art and the new applications they had the secret of making of it for more than one use that was as useful as it was curious". These improvements made it possible to increase "the uniformity of the proofs and their sharpness" and above all gave artists the possibility of retouching their drawings. This presentation was the subject of a report submitted on the following 2 November, which recommended that the Minister of the Interior encourage Engelmann's research. On 12 October 1819, he registered a patent for the use of lithography to reproduce shades of grey without the use of hatching or stippling, but by means of a wash effect.

On 31 August 1837, in partnership with his son Jean, he obtained another ten-year patent for "a new lithographic printing process in colours", which they called "lithocolour printing" and quickly "chromolithography". In 1837, he had already published the Album chromolithographique ou recueil d'essais du nouveau procédé d'impression en couleurs, inventé par MM. Engelmann père et fils de 7 chromolithographies.

His research into improving lithographic presses was noticed by the jury of the Société d'encouragement de l'industrie française, which rewarded him in 1830 for a metal press that was less cumbersome and, above all, fitted with a flexible, efficient metal doctor blade; the machine as a whole could still be improved, but Engelmann's "continuous efforts" and "the services he has rendered to lithography" earned him a second-class gold medal.

In 1820, he printed the Porte-feuille géographique et ethnographique, which contained maps, landscapes, costumes, scientific drawings and a text comparing the various countries of the world.

During the Restoration and the July Monarchy periods, Engelmann was one of the leading printers of prestigious works such as Souvenirs pittoresques du général Bacler d'Albee (see opposite), Lettres sur la Suisse, Anatomie de l'homme, Cathédrales françaises, Voyage pittoresque dans le Brésil, Voyage pittoresque et militaire en Espagne... However, he produced a wide variety of lithographs: some mediocre illustrations for the Gymnase lyrique (1831), a collection of songs sold in installments, but also voluminous portrait galleries (French soldiers "who have distinguished themselves by their courage", opera artists, Alsatians).
The London branch, which was both a depository for lithographs printed in France and a local printing shop, was not as successful as expected and had to be closed in the early 1830s. By contrast, from 1824, Engelmann and his associates began to tackle the European market, starting with Russia, then the Germanic states, which they visited themselves or through representatives, and from 1827 were present at the Leipzig fair. Their network soon reached Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Italy, and even Riga, New York and Mexico.
In 1816, he received a silver medal from the Société d'encouragement, a gold medal at the Salon of 1819, and a silver medal at the Exhibition of Industrial Products in 1823.

The Mulhouse Library also holds another very valuable collection: the Juillard-Engelmann collection, deposited in 1976 by the descendants of the Juillard family and donated to the town in 1988.
The collection includes the 17 volumes of Voyages pittoresques et romantiques dans l'Ancienne France, by Baron Taylor & Charles Nodier. It also includes some very rare works printed and published by Godefroy Engelmann: Voyage au Brésil de Rugendas (1827), Amours de Psyché et de Cupidon (1825), le Sacre de Charles X (1825), etc. It also contains several albums on Russia published by Engelmann's successors (La Russie illustrée; Description de la grande cloche de Moscou), as well as reference collections containing proofs of commercial labels, a kind of advertising archive (see opposite).
Engelmann's works are kept in the Cabinet des Estampes et Dessins. It was created in 1955 thanks to the combined initiative of Noë Richter, Curator of the Library from 1950 to 1971 and Léon Lang, a painter and lithography enthusiast who trained many young artists of his time in this art. Lang went so far as to set up a society of engravers, the Société Godefroy Engelmann, for which the Library was involved in holding regular exhibitions.