Unknown Russian Female Torso woodblock

"Xylograph not ready yet. (This is) 1st print in process of preparation. Will send (the whole) work after finishing". 

This little treasure, a beautiful and academically posed female torso woodblock (wood-engraving) print, I was very pleased to swap recently: Euro's for Art. It came from Estonia, one of the Baltic States. The handwriting in the margins was translated by the friendly seller. Possibly a note from the unknown artist to an editor, perhaps of a book, scribbled on this "epreuve d'artiste" or "artist proof". Would I like to know and find the finished result and publication !

When looking for similar prints in execution (classic or academically posed female nudes in wood-engraving  and woodcut printing) you'll find not that many examples. American wood-engraver Paul Landacre (1893-1863) is one of the artists that comes to mind (above). 

And also British sculptor (very discussed because of his obsessive life-stile)  Eric Gill (1882-1940) but they have strong personal and clearly different styles.

And there is German born American Emil Ganso (1895-1941), who was a painter and wood-engraver specialized in still-lives, landscapes and nudes. He was largely self-taught and emigrated, penniless, to the US in 1912 working as a baker pursuing his art until being discovered in the mid-1920's. 

All pictures borrowed freely from the internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only. 

    

Who was Erwin Frommbach ?

Erwin Frommbach

(born 6 september 1892 and active in Berlin around 1920)

Unknown German painter and printmaker 

Musician and director of a puppet theater in Berlin.

Who was this amateur printmaker, able to create this delightful little print of a "Havellandschaft" (Havel landscape) measuring only 8 x 10 cm.? It depicts the beautiful lake-district formed by the river Havel, surrounding the great city of Berlin and Potsdam on a sunny summers day in fresh and bright colors. It was where the great German impressionist Max Liebermann (1847-1935) lived on its borders and painted the scenery and mundane crowds on numerous occasions:

and an inspiration to many Berlin artists, like Walter Leistikow (1885-1948):

All I was able to find about Erwin Frommbach is that he was living and working in Berlin at the "Reichversicherung für Angestellte" (this national social-security system for middle-class personal was instituted in 1911). He also was a musician and worked as puppeteer, owning a puppet theater later carried on by his son Horst Frommbach. And I learned that Erwin had a sister (no name) that was the mother of Klaus Loose who was the founding father of the famous Bamberg Puppet Theater (Bamberger Marionetten Theater). In an interview that I've found in the Internet he remembered his relatives in Berlin very well and tells of the inspiration he found in the artistic environment of his uncle and nephew in Berlin before WW2.  

And researching I found these two paintings by Erwin Frommbach. But I like his print best. With this initial article/posting I'm confident with the help from readers and passers-by more information about this printmaker will surface in future. 

All pictures borrowed freely from the internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.

Sanyu, A Chinese in Paris (Part 2: some flower paintings)

Sanyu

(San Yu or Chang Yu)

(Nanchung 14 October 1901 - 1966 Paris  

Chinese-French painter
and printmaker. 

Today, as promised continuing with (a selection of) floral paintings by this Chinese-French artist that I've scratched together from the internet. Most sensitive renderings of traditional Chinese flower arrangement and house plant pruning. But nevertheless "made in Paris".        

I'm really impressed by Sanyu's search for purity of line, and in the case of his flower paintings arrangement and composition. These images create a lasting imprint in the brain. Well, that is, in my brain at least. 

All pictures are mouse-clickable to embiggen.

All pictures borrowed freely from the Internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.  

Sanyu, A Chinese in Paris (Part 1)

Sanyu 

(San Yu or Chang Yu, 常玉)

(Nanchung 14 October 1901 - 1966 Paris

Chinese-French painter and sculptor
and printmaker. 

In last posting I met with Paul Emille Gallien, so called "master of the black line". Researching this French artist and filling my bucket so to speak I couldn't help stumbling over another but very different black line magician. Also in Paris. At the same time, arriving in 1921 and after two years of study in Berlin, returned to stay permanently in 1923.

   

Although this Blog is mainly concerned with printmaking and Sanyu is as much a printmaker as I am an art expert I cannot resist showing some of his works that left me in wonder for quite a while. The art and training of the traditional Chinese black line + calligraphy + abstraction" mixed and infused with modernist Paris creating a unique style, at least that is what I think.   

Influences of many contemporary (Western) artists came to my simple mind: the models and nudes of Egon Schiele, Picasso and Henri Matisse, the odalisques of Amadeo Modigliani, the rounded curves of Renoir's  and Aristide Maillol's models. But also the colors and horses and dogs by Marc Chagall and Franz Marc and "the Brücke" artists like Ernst Ludwig Kirchner but also images of flowers in pots from Japanese (flower) printmaker Yoshijiro Urushibara. 

The aesthete Sanyu was always experimenting with form and composition, arranging and rearranging his models to find the perfect composition.

But then: I'm not an art expert, so please let these powerful images sink in and make up your own mind. 

Although once famous and adulated Sanyu, he exhibited even in Amsterdam before WW2, died in abject poverty and obscurity in his Paris studio in 1966. 
   

In next posting: showing some of Sanyu's characteristic flower paintings. 

You can read here* and here* about Sanyu's life and career. In the second link you can find many more examples of Sanyu's work. 

All pictures borrowed freely from the Internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.      

Pierre Antoine Gallien, peintre a la ligne noir

Pierre Antoine Gallien

(Grenoble 1896-1963 Mont Rouge)

French modernist woodcut artist.

"painter of the black line" 

Over the years I had filed several pictures of examples by this artist that I've saved from auction sites, catalogues etc. Recently stumbling over another I decided to swipe them together and create this posting. 

Woodcut portraits by Pierre Antoine Gallien and self-portrait by Fujita.

There's not much about the life of Pierre Antoine Gallien to be found in the Internet but according to the portraits he cut in wood there's a good chance he learned the art of woodblock printmaking from the Japanese artist Fujita (Léonard Tsugouharu Foujita (藤田 嗣治, Fujita Tsuguharu, November 27, 1886 – January 29, 1968). Read here about this extraordinary artist *).  

However, Gallien's many portraits of contemporary French artists places him right in the wild modernist and avant-garde circles in Paris-Montparnasse after the Great War in the roaring twenties. 

"British avant garde artist Nina Hamnett (1890-1965) taking a bath", by Fujita.

(read here* about this most interesting woman artist and Bohemien)

 Gallien's portrait of French composer Alberic Magnard (1865-1914) and painter Henri Matisse (1969-1954)

and painter printmaker Henri de Waroquier (1881-1970) who created this wonderful still-life color woodcut in 1909.

Among them were painter Amadeo Modigliani (1884-1920) and his many mistresses and muzes, sculptor Constantin Brancusi (1976-1957), Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), avant-garde photographer Mann Ray (1980-1976) and Kiki de Montparnasse (1901-1953), André Derain, Maurice Utrillo, Wassily Kandinsky, Frantisek Kupka, Henri Matisse and many others in the steaming Bohemien world that was Montparnasse in the 1920's.

Montparnasse in 1922, the café's, bars and studio's, where life began after sunset and the nights never ended, as seen and cut in wood by Gallien.

Gallien had been a student of the "Ecole des Beaux-Arts, des Arts décoratifs et du Louvre" in Paris and was appointed professor of drawing, probably in Paris. 

These lovely illustrations, from a limited poetry edition "Du pain et des Roses" (Bread and Roses) by Marius Noguès (1919-2012) in 1947

for me symbolizing the warmth, joy and freedom of midsummer and reminding me of the merry novel of Pallieter and a hot summers day by Flemish writer Felix Timmermans (1886-1947) about the simpleton Pallieter and the love of his life Marieke (read here*).

All pictures are mouse-clickable to embiggen

&    

All pictures borrowed freely from the internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.