Paul César Helleu
Paul César Helleu | |
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Légion d'honneur (1904) |
Paul César Helleu (17 December 1859 – 23 March 1927) was a French oil painter, pastel artist, drypoint etcher, and designer, best known for his numerous portraits of beautiful society women of the Belle Époque. He also conceived the ceiling mural of night sky constellations for Grand Central Terminal in New York City. He was also the father of Jean Helleu and the grandfather of Jacques Helleu, both artistic directors for Parfums Chanel.
Biography
Paul César Helleu was born in
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.
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, Jeanne de Montagnac, Louise Chéruit, and Helena Rubinstein.
Looking for new inspiration, Helleu began a series of paintings and color prints of
In 1904, Helleu was awarded the
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 sky covered by the starry signs of the zodiac that cross the Milky Way. Although the astrological design was widely admired, the ceiling was covered in the 1930s. It was completely restored in 1998.[2]
Helleu made his last trip to New York City in 1920 for an exhibition of his work, but he realized that the Belle Époque was over. He felt out of touch, and shortly after his return to France, he destroyed nearly all of his copper plates and retired to family life. While planning for a new exhibition with Jean-Louis Forain, he died in 1927 at age 67 of peritonitis following surgery in Paris.
Among many of his friends was Coco Chanel, who chose beige as her signature colour upon on his advice—the colour of the sand on the beach of Biarritz in early morning. Both his son Jean Helleu and his grandson Jacques Helleu became artistic directors for Parfums Chanel.
Pastel portraits
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Peggy Letellier,
pastel, 1905 -
Mademoiselle Vaughan,
pastel, 1905 -
Lady with Flowers, pastel on linen, 1910
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Camara,
pastel, 1905 -
Elegant Woman at
the Rail, pastel, 1905 -
On the sofa,
pastel, 1899
Prints
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Le Chapeau Plissés,
drypoint -
Madame Chéruit,
drypoint -
Le Sphinx,
drypoint -
Étude d'après la même,
drypoint -
Madame Letellier,
drypoint -
Elegant woman in fur coat. Drypoint, color print
Oil paintings
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Madame Helleu on Her Yacht L'étoile, oil on canvas, ca. 1898–1900
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Le Grand Pavois,
oil on canvas, 1901 -
Madame Paul Helleu Seated at Her Secretaire, oil on canvas, 1900
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Young woman in white (Mrs. Helleu),
oil on canvas, 1900
Miscellaneous subjects
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Théodore Deck plate decorated by Helleu, 1884, Colmar Museum
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Le Joueur de flûte,
color print, 1895 -
Hydrangeas,
pastel, 1911 -
The Yacht L'étoile,
oil on canvas, 1903 -
Grand Central Terminal ceiling in New York City
References
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
- ^ Waldeck, Stefanie (14 August 2018). "Inside the Secret Life of New York's Grand Central Terminal". Architectural Digest. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
Sources
- Montesquiou, Robert de (1913), Paul Helleu, Peintre et Graveur, Paris: H. Floury., digital facsimile edition, includes 100 full page illustrations in color, at Internet Archive (also at OpenLibrary.org)
- Mourey, Gabriel, "Paul Helleu" in Parisian Illustrated Review, volume 10, no. 1 (January 1901), pp. 11–17, translation of article first published in Revue Illustrée, at Google Books.
- Anguissola, Alberto Beretta (2006), Boldini, Helleu, Sem: protagonisti e miti della Belle Epoque, Milan: Skira.
- Wedmore, Frederick (1900?), Dry-points by Paul Helleu, New York: Frederick Keppel & Co.
- Green, Richard (1991), Helleu: Paul Cesar Helleu, 1859-1927 : An exhibition of oils, pastels and drypoints, London: Richard Green Gallery.
- Paul-César Helleu, 1859–1927: Glimpses of the Grace of Women (1974), New York: Knoedler.
- Paul Helleu: Drypoints (1992), London: Lumley Cazalet Ltd.
External links
- Les Amis de Paul-César Helleu, including online catalogue raisonné (in French)
- Paulette Howard-Johnston - Daily Telegraph obituary
- New York Social Diary, Society portraitist of the first order, a biography of Paul Helleu
- JC Virtual Gallery, Paul Helleu, numerous reproductions of works