Edward Henry Potthast

The Century Magazine

1896

After Edward Henry Potthast July 7, 1896 Printed by W.B. Orcutt Co., NY Note: This image won an honorable mention in a poster contest sponsored by The Century in 1896. As a result...

Programme poour Le Chariot de Terre Cutte Lithograph printed in blue on pink tint thin wove paper, 1895 Signed with the artist's "TL" monogram (see photo) lower center edge Published...

Miss Taylor Drypoint, c. 1900 Signed in pencil lower left (see photo) Small edition, about 10 Very rich impression, full of burr Condition: Excellent Image size: 21-1/4 x 13-1/4" Sheet size: 25 3/8 x 18 5/8" Reference: Montesquiou XII Paul César Helleu was born in Vannes, Brittany, France. His father, who was a customs inspector, died when Helleu was in his teens. Despite opposition from his mother, he then went to Paris and studied at Lycée Chaptal. In 1876, at age 16, he was admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts, beginning academic training in art with Jean-Léon Gérôme. Helleu attended the Second Impressionist Exhibition in the same year, and made his first acquaintances with John Singer Sargent, James McNeill Whistler, and Claude Monet. He was struck by their modern, bold alla prima technique and outdoor scenes, so far removed from the studio. Following graduation, Helleu took a job with the firm Théodore Deck Ceramique Française hand-painting fine decorative plates. At this same time, he met Giovanni Boldini, a portrait painter with a facile, bravura style, who became a mentor and comrade, and strongly influenced his future artistic style. When he was 18 years old, Helleu established a close friendship with John Singer Sargent, four years his senior, that was to last his lifetime. Already becoming established, Sargent was receiving commissions for his work. Helleu had not sold anything, and was deeply discouraged almost to the point of abandoning his studies. When Sargent heard this, he went to Helleu and picked one of his paintings, praising his technique. Flattered that Sargent would praise his work, he offered to give it to him. Sargent replied, "I shall gladly accept this, Helleu, but not as a gift. I sell my own pictures, and I know what they cost me by the time they are out of my hand. I should never enjoy this pastel if I hadn't paid you a fair and honest price for it." With this he paid him a thousand-franc note. Helleu was commissioned in 1884 to paint a portrait of a young woman named Alice Guérin (1870–1933). They fell in love, and married on 28 July 1886. Throughout their lives together, she was his favourite model. Charming, refined and graceful, she helped introduce them to the aristocratic circles of Paris, where they became popular fixtures. On a trip to London with Jacques-Émile Blanche in 1885, Helleu met Whistler again and visited other prominent artists. His introduction to James Jacques Tissot, an accomplished society painter from France who made his career in England, proved a revelation. In Tissot, Helleu saw, for the first time, the possibilities of drypoint etching with a diamond point stylus directly on a copper plate. Helleu quickly became a virtuoso of the technique, drawing with the same dynamic and sophisticated freedom with his stylus as with his pastels. His prints were very well received, and they had the added advantage that a sitter could have several proofs printed to give to relations or friends. Over the course of his career, Helleu produced more than 2,000 drypoint prints. Soon, Helleu was displaying works to much acclaim at several galleries. Degas encouraged him to submit paintings to the Eighth Impressionist Exhibition in May and June 1886. The show was installed in a Paris apartment at 1 rue Laffitte, which ran concurrently with the official Salon that year to make a statement. Although 17 artists joined the famous exhibit that included the first Neo-Impressionistic works, Helleu, like Monet, refused to participate. Paul Helleu Sketching with His Wife (1889), by John Singer Sargent, The Brooklyn Museum, New York In 1886, Helleu befriended Robert de Montesquiou, the poet and aesthete, who bought six of his drypoints to add to his large print collection. Montesquiou later wrote a book about Helleu that was published in 1913 with reproductions of 100 of his prints and drawings. This volume remains the definitive biography of Helleu. Montesquiou introduced Helleu to Parisian literary salons, where he met Marcel Proust, who also became a friend. Proust created a literary picture of Helleu in his novel Remembrance of Things Past as the painter Elstir. (Later, Helleu engraved a well-known portrait of Proust on his deathbed.) Montesquiou's cousin, the Countess Greffulhe, enabled Helleu to expand his career as a portrait artist to elegant women in the highest ranks of Paris society, portraits that provide the basis for his modern reputation. His subjects included the Duchess of Marlborough, the Marchesa Casati...

Un plaideur auquel manquent malheureusement les pieces les plus importantes, les pieces de cent sous. (A litigant who unfortunately doesn't have the most important details to succes...

Portrait De Cezanne Lithograph, 1914 Unsigned (as issued in 1914) Edition: Either 100 (per Roger Marx) or 400 impressions on various papers Published in, Cezanne, Bernheim Jeune, 1914 Reference: Roger-Marx 51 ii/II, printed in greenish-grey ink on laid paper Condition: Excellent Image: 9 1/2 x 9" Sheet: 14 3/4 x 11 1/8" Edouard Vuillard French, 1868 - 1940 Vuillard's work straddles two centuries: he was a major post-impressionist in the 1890s, as well as a participant in the renewal of decorative art before and after 1900. Vuillard was one of the central figures of "Les Nabis...

Signed in pencil lower right Edition: 40 From: America’s Family (Five Images) Published by Valley House Gallery and Sculpture Garden, Dallas, Texas and Thomas French Fine Art, LLC, Fairlawn, Ohio. Printed on Arches paper by James Reed...

GUYON, MAXIMILIENNE (1868-1903) "MARIS STELLA" Lithograph in color, c. 1898-99 Signature in stone “Maximilienne Guyon”; lower right Sheet size: 16” x 12” As published in L’estampe Moderne...

Rare large (2-sheet format) Italian stone lithograph original fashion poster by Aleardo Villa, 1890. This is an advertisement for G. Contratti ...

Portrait of Philip Andreevich Malavin.1879.Paper, lithography, 32x23 cm with minor defects. Leon Bakst. (1866-1924)

Title: Decorative Documents Author: Alfons Mucha. Publisher: Paris: Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts, 13 Rue Lafayette. Emile Levy publisher. Published ...

Title: Decorative Documents Author: Alfons Mucha. Publisher: Paris: Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts, 13 Rue Lafayette. Emile Levy publisher. Published ...

"Bénédictine" original 1898 advertising poster for Bénédictine de L'Abbaye de Fécamp liqueur by Lucian Lopes Silva.