Henri Guerard, French pioneer printmaker

Henri-Charles Guérard

(1846-1897)

French painter etcher and printmaker.

As a result of my on going interest in prints and printmakers this French artist emerged from the past and I hope sharing my personal research laced with a choice of  Guérards work will be of interest to readers of this Blog.

Le Palais de Justice, vu du Pont Notre-Dame (1889) edition of 6 prints by August Leperè dedicated to his friend Guérard.

Henri Guerard was born three years before August Lepère (1849-1918), considered the godfather of French and possibly European Modern Printmakers. They were of course acquainted Lepère encouraging Guérard to create prints the new way. (Read here*)

And Guérard became befriended with Éduard Manet (1832-1883) who’s pupil (Manet’s only one), impressionist model and painter Eva Gonzalès (1849-1883) he would marry in 1879. The couple moved to Honfleur in Brittany meeting many of the impressionist painters and etchers. 

I always assumed (dangerous !) the Paris World Exhibition of 1889 was the start of rising interest and influence in and popularity of Japanese printmaking in Europe. 

In 1890 the Ecole des Beaux Arts held an exhibition leaving Felix Valloton (1865-1925) involved in Japonism. His cygnes (swans) a very popular item in the 1890’s and 1910’s dating from 1892 and in next posting I intend hurdling them all together. Guérards swans, below, dated a few years later: 1895.

But well before 1890 I learned Leon Gonse (1846-1921), art historian and director of la Gazette des Beaux Arts, organized exhibitions on Japan art and in 1883 published his most important and influential 2 volume book “ L’Art Japonais” (edition of 1400) and illustrated by his friend Guérard.

Manet considered Guérard the best French aquatint etcher of his time. With Felix Bracquemond (1833-1914) Guérard founded the Societé des Peintres Graveurs in 1890. 

Portraits of Éduard Manet, Whistler and 
Whistler's mother (after the painting) 

Guérard died young dating all his known work before 1897, about the year the first  British, Austrian and German examples were conceived by printmakers like Frank Morley Fletcher (who had studied in Paris), Otto Eckmann, Emil Orlik and of course many others. 

Honfleur harbour.

 

It is from 1905 onwards a steadily growing stream of prints by a growing number of artists influenced by and/or printing in "the Japanese way' can be traced but in that last decade of the 19^th century there obviously was much more going on in this field then I’d imagined before.

 Tiger head and print of a monkey's hand 

Eva Gonzalès died from an embolism giving birth to their sun Jean, six days after her teacher and friend Manet passed away. This lovely painting “le Chignon” (the Bun) is by her. Guérard married her sister Jeanne a few years later. Left little Jean Guérard's portrait  by his father.

Guérard with Jean Francois Raffaelli (1850-1924) are considered the pioneers of aquatint etching. 

Etching by Guérard of Hokusai's chess players

With Lepère, Guérard preceded and stood at the very beginning of the first “generation” of French Modern Printmakers: Felix Valloton, Henri Rivière (1864-1951), Jacques Beltrand (1874-1977), Amadee Joyau (1873-1913), Jules Chadel (1870-1942), Henri Amedee-Wetter (1869-1929 and Prosper Alphonse Isaac (1858-1924)

Guérard at work. 

Read here* and here* in "Adventures in the print trade" on Lepère, Raffaelli and Guérard.

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

 

Hélène Mass (Maß), painter printmaker (III)

Emil Orlik

(Prag 1870- Berlin 1932)

Painter, Printmaker, Professor

Father of Modern Printmakers

Trying to understand how, in a relative short period, woodblock printmakers like Hélène Maß and so many of her contemporaries from northern Germany achieved such high originality and quality I’ve been journeying around the 1890-1920 period. Meeting the printmakers, painters, the professors, teachers, the visiting artist, exhibitions, critics, publications, organisations etc.

 Emil Orlik (l.) in William Nicholson mode  and Nicholson (r.) in Orlik mode

The pivotal figure in Modern Printmaking in Germany is Emil Orlik. Once he was appointed professor, aged 34, in the Royal Art School of the Arts and Crafts Museum in Berlin in 1904 I guess most later known printmaking artists, German and visitors from abroad, will have been under his guidance and influence.

Market: William Nicholson (l.) and Emil Orlik (r.)

In 1902 Orlik returned from Japan. Before he’d visited William Nicholson in London, Felix Valloton in Paris, Max Liebermann in Munich and August Lepère in Paris was still alive, all pioneers of Modern printmaking. Thus Orlik became the funnel between the “before and after” printmakers on the hinge of the 19th and 20th century.     

 Felix Valloton(l.) and Emil Orlik (r.)

In Berlin Orlik succeeded Otto Eckmann (r.) who’d died in 1902. Before, both men were active in Vienna and München. In the south of Germany a first group of German modern printmakers was inspired: Norbertine Bresslern Roth, Carl Thiemann, Carl Moll, Walter Klemm, Martha Cunz, Karl Johne, Ludwig Jungnickel. These artists often originated from neighbouring countries, Hungary, Suisse, Austria. 

Orlik held his position in Berlin until the end of his life in 1932.  Would I like to see the 1900-20 school records and archives to see who was there and when, but I fear these might not have survived the 1930's disapproval and rejection and later the rage and fires that destroyed majestic old Berlin in 1945.

 Hélène Maß, woodblock (l.) and Max Uth (1863-1914), oil (r.)

So many talented women, Else Schmiedeberg-Blume, Elisabeth von Oertzen, Eva-Maria Marcus, Hélène Maß, Joahnna Metzner, Elisabeth Consentius, Margarethe Gerhardt, Hélène Prausnitz-Sagert, Erna Halleur, Ilse Koch, Käthe Hoch, Dagmar Hooge, Lina Ammer, Lisbet Schulz, Eva Roemer, Wally Peretz-Brutzkus, Hélène Isenbart, Meta Cohn-Hendel, Christa Lettow. Relatively few men: among them Carl Alexander Brendel, Daniël Staschus and Heine Rath.

Hélène Maß, woodblock (l.) and Richard Puls (1855-1932), oil (r.)

Most of these women were from well to do families, well trained accomplished painters following courses, classes and lessons in the abundance of first class academies, schools and studios. Some even had been to Paris. A mixed company of generations, married woman and teenagers. In some cases the influence of the painter-teacher on the later printmaking careers is obvious and I think crucial to the quality, diversity and success this "new" method of creating affordable and accountable art in original and individual copies.

 Hélène Maß woodblock (l.) and Walter Leistikow drawing (r.)

Sometimes these Master-Mate connections are known and delivered to us: Else Schmiedeberg~Lovis Corinth, Hélène Maß~Walter Leistikow and Johannes Iten, Carl Alxander Brendel~Paul Frederik Meyerheim and  father Albert), Eva Maria Marcus~Corinth and Orlik. In others I hope one day more details, bits and pieces of their lives and careers will turn up. This medium is one way of trying. Feel free to comment and send suggestions, additions and corrections. 

Hélène Maß and Eva Maria Marcus (1884-1970) woodblock.

Orliks' coming to Berlin, with his drive, his talent and his printmaking know-how was not a seed that fell in a growing pot, but the Messiah of Modern printmaking sowing with generous hands in what must have been the most fertile fields of artistic and aesthetic talent on the planet in the first decades of the 20-th century.  

Emil Orlik portraits by his Munich friend Bernard Pankok (1872-1943)   

To be continued, there's more to come. 

The overlap in posting with other printmaking blogs is purely coincidental, possibly due to the present interest and Emil Orlik exhibitions in Germany.

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