Paul César Helleu

Portrait de femme en buste, de profil a gauche, un tres large ruban noir du cou

1901

The Forge Drypoint, 1861 Signed in the plate lower right (see photo) Published as part of the Thames Set, 1871 Printed between 1894 and 1896 when the plate was canceled. This impress...

Le banc de jardin (The Garden Bench) Mezzotint and engraving on cream chine collé laid down on ivory wove paper, 1883 Signed in the plate (see photo) Condition: Brilliant impression...

Signed, dated and numbered in pencil Printer: Rebekah Wilhelm, Zygote Press, Cleveland Created at Zygote Press, Cleveland, 2015, while the artist was an Artist in Residence. Exhib...

Profile Bust of a Girl - Woman's Head in Profile (Havard) Drypoint, 1920 Unsigned (as issued) From: The Drypoints of Elie Nadelman, 21 unpublished prints by the sculptor, proof from ...

Girl's Head - Woman's Head (Harvard) Drypoint, 1920 Unsigned (as issued) From: The Drypoints of Elie Nadelman, 21 unpublished prints by the sculptor, proof from the original zinc and copper plates, 1952 Published by Curt Valentin, New York Edition: unknown Printed by Charles S. White, master printer Printed on Van Gelder Zonen laid paper with armorial watermark A complete portfolio is in the collection of Harvard Art...

Portrait de petite fille, en buste, cheveux sur les epaules (Ellen 14 ans) Portrait of a little girl, bust, hair on shoulders) Drypoint, 1902 Signed lower right corner Very small edition Portrait of the artist's daughter Ellen, at age 14. Title inscribed into the plate upper left Brilliant impression full of burr No stated edition, proofs only, less than 10 imps Unidnetified collector's mark verso: Initials "PH", not in Lugt Reference: Laran, IFF No. 390 Condition: Excellent Image/Plate eize: 14 3/4 x 12 5/8 inches Sheet size: 25 x 16 inches "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, Belle da Costa Greene, Louise Chéruit, and Helena Rubinstein. Looking for new inspiration, Helleu began a series of paintings and color prints of cathedrals and stained glass windows in 1893, followed by flower studies and landscapes of parks in Versailles. Helleu took up sailing, owning four yachts over his life. Ships, harbor views, life at port in Deauville, and women in their fashionable seaside attire became subjects for many vivid and spirited works. In 1904, Helleu was awarded the Légion d'honneur and became one of the most celebrated artists of the Edwardian era in both Paris and London. He was an honorary member in important beaux-arts societies, including the International Society of Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers, headed by Auguste Rodin, and the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. On his second trip to the United States in 1912, Helleu was awarded the commission to design was the ceiling decoration in New York City's Grand Central Terminal. He decided on a mural of a blue-green night...

Etching printed in brownish black on light tan Chine collé, 1861. Image measures 6 x 5 inches, displayed in a 15.5 x 12.5 inch frame. Etched signature and date lower left. A very goo...

Original drypoint printed in dark umber ink on laid paper bearing the “VANDERLEY” watermark. Hand-signed in pencil in the margin below the image lower right Mary Cassatt. A super...

Limited edition drypoint etching of a nude figure from a posterior view by Jim Smyth (American, b. 1938). Numbered and signed by hand "7/15 Jim Smyth" along the bottom edge. Presented in a new cream and off-white double mat. No frame. Image size: 14.75"H x 10.75"W Jim Smyth (American, b. 1938) has studied at the Academia de Belle Arti in Fiorenza, Italy, Ecole des BeauxArts in Geneva, New York Academy and the Art Students league. He is also a graduate from UC Berkeley with a degree in Fine Art. Although academically trained, Smyth practices and teaches a more impressionistic style of painting, focusing on Alla Prima technique. He is particularly knowledgeable about drawing, perspective, color theory and the human figure, his passion. Smyth, with an extensive academic knowledge, has a profound love of all human representations as illustrated by his humorous quick sketches from life. He also practices and teaches oil painting and pastels. When not in Provence, or Southeastern France, Smyth teaches intensely in art schools, art centers and several colleges in the Bay Area. He is a beloved instructor and his classes fill in quickly as he is very knowledgeable. On his return to the United States, he began studying with Mr. Alanson Appleton at the College of San Mateo, San Mateo, California. Smyth was a founding member of the Appletree Etchers, Inc., an etching print shop organized by Mr. Appleton and his students to develop and promote color intaglio. Smyth served as Master Printer at the studio for many years perfecting the techniques of intaglio and developing the color theories of Mr. Appleton as applied to the deep etched plate. Smyth received his degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1972 and holds the California Community College Certificate and an Adult Education Certificate. Smyth was invited to teach "Anatomy for Artists" at Foothill College, Los Altos Hills, California, as a result of his many years of dissection of the cadaver and developed the course of study of Perspective for the college. During this period, he began teaching Life Drawing at the Pacific Art League of Palo Alto, Palo Alto, California. During the following thirty years Smyth has taught an average of twelve classes per week at the Pacific Art League of Palo Alto, the Palo Alto Art Center and the Burlingame Recreation Department among others in all phases of drawing and painting. He has conducted many workshops for the California Academy of Painters in many aspects of drawing and painting. Currently, he is an Adjunct Professor of Drawing at the College of San Mateo, San Mateo, California. He is an authority on the materials of painting and drawing, techniques of traditional drawing and painting, color theory, perspective and anatomy for artists. In his career in Life Drawing, Smyth has made over two hundred thousand drawings from the model. In addition to studies at Berkeley, Smyth has studied at the College of San Mateo, Foothill College, De Anza College, Mission College and West Valley College, all in California. One of the pivotal points in his career was studying with Mr. Maynard Dixon Stewart at the University of San Jose, California. He spent a year at the New York Academy of Art where he was offered a full scholarship and at the Art Students League of New York. He concurrently attended classes at the National Academy of Design in New York. Among others, Smyth studied with M. Andrejivec, Ted Schmidt, Elliot Goldfinger, Gary Fagin, Ted Jacobs, Leo Neufeld, David Leffel, Jack Ferragasso, Jim Childs and Everett Raymond Kinstler and Kim English. Smyth has also studied with the noted painter and colorist, Ovanes Berberian. In 2002 Jim was invited to study at the Academy of Art in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he worked in Life Drawing and Life Painting. Smyth is a popular lecturer, a sought after demonstrator and juror. He is the recipient of many awards for both his painting and his teaching. In 1988 and again in 2003, he received the Kenneth Washburn...

Madame Helleu Looking at Watteau drawings at the Louvre. (En regardant les Watteau de Louvre). c. 1895. Drypoint printed in 2 colors - black and sepia. 11 3/4 x 15 7/8. Goncourt 3, d...

Hélène of Septeuil (enfant au perroquet) (child with a parakeet). c. 1889-1890. Drypoint. Breeskin, 134.v. 9 3/8 x 6 1/4 (sheet 15 3/4 x 9 7/8). A rich impression with burr and plate...

Jacques Villon (1875-1963) etching, aquatint, and drypoint, Minne Playing with a Cat (Minne Jouant avec un Chat),1907, signed in pencil and numbered (12/30)(Ginestet and Pouillon 192...