Jean Izarn

Jean Izarn – librairie Chrétien

Illustrated books, advertising, fashion, child litterature, illustrated literature, prints and original works by illustrators

“At the beginning of the 20th century, an extraordinary event took place in Paris. The Chrétien bookstore, created by Mr. Lehec in 1878, cast off and left his home port Saint André des Arts, to cross the Seine and come to anchor 178, rue Faubourg Saint Honore.

Commander Lehec, writes Apollinaire in Le Flâneur des deux-rives, “loved his books so much that he sold them only to the few persons he thought worthy of acquiring. The bookshop was then held for several generations by the family CHRETIEN, specializing in bibliophilia. In 1998, Jean IZARN bought the bookstore, which he frequented from an early age, to Jean CHRETIEN: he kept for his business the name “Chrétien Bookstore”.

Jean Izarn took over the CHRETIEN bookstore from Jean Chrétien in 1999 by choosing to keep the sign of his predecessor but by bending his acquisition policy and the specialization of the bookstore. He was one of the first to embark on “the modern illustrated” and his first catalog on advertising editions caused some excitement among former clients of Jean Chrétien, for whom this form of bibliophile, was more than Unusual ”

text by Emmanuel POLLAUD-DULIAN.