Paul César Helleu

"Madame Georges Menier" Portrait, by Paul Cesar Helleu

1900

HELLEU, PAUL CÉSAR (1859 - 1927) "La Dame a la Toque" (Lady in Fur Hat) Drypoint printed in colors on pale cream wove paper, c. 1906 Signed in black crayo...

HELLEU, PAUL CÉSAR (1859 - 1927) "La Dame a la Toque" (Lady in Fur Hat) Montesquiou XXXVI, c. 1906 Drypoint printed in colors on pale cream wove paper Sig...

HELLEU, PAUL CÉSAR (1859 -1927) "Fillette Assise de Profil àGauche (Mlle. P) (Profile of a Seated Girl to the left) Drypoint in colors, c. 1895 Signed in pe...

HELLEU, PAUL CÉSAR (1859 - 1927) "La Dame a la Toque" (Lady in Fur Hat) Montesquiou XXXVI, c. 1906 Drypoint printed in colors on pale cream wove paper Signed in black crayon lower ...

RENOIR, PIERRE AUGUSTE (1841 -1919) "Une Mère et Enfant (Jean Renoir)" (Mother and Child) Delteil 10, Stella 10 Drypoint in color, 1896 Proof aside from the numbered edition of 100...

Jim Dine Robe in Furnace Original etching in colors on copperplate deluxe paper From the rare, limited edition impression 4 of 31 Hand signed by artist and numbered Image Size 27...

English Bar. 1908. Etching and drypoint. Exsteens catalog 275 state ii. 8 1/8 x 5 5/8 (sheet 17 3/8 x 12 1/4). Series: Les Bars. Edition 65 in this state (total edition 95). Printed ...

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...

PABLO PICASSO 1881-1973 Málaga 1881- 1973 Mougins (Spanish) Title: Caricature of General de Gaulle and Two Women, from: Series 347 Caricature du général de ...

Chris Ofili (British, b. 1968) Untitled, 2000 Medium: Etching, aquatint and drypoint, on Hahnemühle wove paper Dimensions: 25.7 × 20.8 cm (10 1/10 × 8 1/5 in) Edition of 100: Hand-si...

Salvador Dali - La Fontaine Portrait - Handsigned Engraving 1974 Hand signed by Dali Edition: /250 The dimensions of the image are 22.8 x 15.7 inches on 31 x 23.2 inch paper Referenc...

This is an original drypoint and aquatint artwork by Jacques Villon. The artist signed in pencil on the lower right. As well as signed in plate at the top right of the image. This is a wonderful artwork of different intaglio processes being brought together in a beautiful almost seamless harmony. The thin pencil like markings and hair detailing are made using the Drypoint printmaking method. Whilst the color details around the girls are made using the Aquatint etching method. Jacques Villon shows his skills as a printmaker with the way these pieces line up perfectly and with how clean the rest of the plate is around the girls. Catalogue Raisonne E101, pg. 66-67 (Ginestet & Pouillon. It depicts two young girls. 15" x 11 1/2" art 25 1/8" x 20" frame French painter, printmaker and illustrator. The oldest of three brothers who became major 20th-century artists, including Raymond Duchamp-Villon and Marcel Duchamp, he learnt engraving at the age of 16 from his maternal grandfather, Emile-Frédéric Nicolle (1830-94), a ship-broker who was also a much appreciated amateur artist. In January 1894, having completed his studies at the Lycée Corneille in Rouen, he was sent to study at the Faculty of Law of the University of Paris, but within a year he was devoting most of his time to art, already contributing lithographs to Parisian illustrated newspapers such as Assiette au beurre. At this time he chose his pseudonym: Jack (subsequently Jacques) in homage to Alphonse Daudet’s novel Jack (1876) and Villon in appreciation of the 15th-century French poet François Villon...