Paul César Helleu

Helleu, Paul-César(-François)

(b Vannes, 17 Dec 1859; d Paris, 23 March 1927).

French painter and printmaker. In 1870 he entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, where he studied under Jean-Léon Gérôme, a pupil of Ingres. He proudly described himself as ‘the grandson of Ingres’ and advocated that artists should ‘always be classical’. He quickly formed a group of close friends including Sargent, Degas, Whistler, Alfred Stevens and Giovanni Boldini. As a student he was very poor and to earn a living spent 10 years decorating plates for the potter Joseph-Théodore Deck. In 1885 he visited London with Gérôme to paint a panorama (untraced). This was the start of a lifelong affection for England, where he returned almost every year.

Helleu established his reputation with the exhibition of several large pastels at the Salons of 1885 and 1886, including Woman with a Fan (exh. Salon 1886; Minneapolis, MN, Inst. A.); Blanche claimed that never before had an unknown artist received such a rapturous reception. Degas invited Helleu to contribute to the Impressionist exhibition of 1886, but he refused because of his dislike of Gauguin’s work, a decision that later harmed his reputation. Helleu was a plein-air painter; his subjects and style are in the Impressionist mood, though his colours are cooler. In 1886 he married Alice Guérin, then aged 16, who became his favourite model . Helleu’s many sketches and drypoints of his wife and children are among his most charming works (see Helleu).

In 1887 Helleu met Comte Robert de Montesquiou, who bought several of the artist’s works and commissioned a series of pastels of hydrangeas for his house at Versailles (untraced). He introduced Helleu into French society and became his greatest admirer and patron. Helleu painted several portraits of Montesquiou’s cousin, Mme de Greffulhe (e.g. 1897; France, priv. col.), on whom Marcel Proust based the Duchesse de Guermantes in A la recherche du temps perdu, while the painter Elstir is principally based on Helleu himself. Montesquiou’s book on Helleu remains the standard work on his oils, pastels and drypoints (a quarrel between them arose, however, over the book’s design).

In 1886 James Tissot gave Helleu the diamond he used to draw drypoints on copper, for he regarded Helleu as his natural successor. Helleu proved to be a great master of this difficult medium. He exhibited 59 works in 1895 at the Robert Dunthorne Gallery, London, with a catalogue prefaced by Edmond de Goncourt. Princess Alexandra visited the show and commissioned a drypoint portrait of herself. Helleu soon became renowned for these drypoints of fashionable beauties, which he could produce in an hour and a half and for which he charged 1200 francs. Although sometimes unique, they could be produced in editions as large as 150 (examples in Paris, Bib. N.). His sitters were drawn from the aristocracy (e.g. Duchess of Marlborough, 1900), the demi-monde (e.g. Liane de Pougy, c. 1910) and from literary circles (e.g. Anna de Noailles, c. 1905). The precise draughtsmanship of his drypoints contrasts strongly with the flowing brushwork of his paintings; Helleu’s work in both media, however, shows the influence of Japanese prints in his choice of compositional perspective.

The last exhibition of Helleu’s oils, including seascapes, pictures of cathedrals and views of the park at Versailles, was held at the Salon du Champs de Mars, Paris, in 1897. He had just met Proust, whose admiration for Autumn at Versailles (c. 1897; Paris, Mus. d’Orsay) led to a lifelong friendship. Proust visited the artist on his yacht and in his elegant flat, which was entirely decorated in white, his favourite colour.

Helleu visited America in 1902, 1912 and 1920. He admired the beauty and chic of American women and portrayed many of them, including Helena Rubinstein (drypoint) and the Director of the Pierpont Morgan Library Belle de Costa Greene (drawing in coloured chalks, 1912; New York, Pierpont Morgan Lib.). He also painted the ceiling of Grand Central Station (1912; rest. 1990s) with the signs of the zodiac. Despite the encouragement of his artist friends, Helleu doubted the worth of his oil paintings, which, as Blanche observed, were ‘carefully hidden from the public’. The popularity of his drypoint portraits of society beauties has prevented a general recognition of his considerable talents as a painter and pastellist.

Writings

Nos bébés (Paris, c. 1912)

Bibliography

R. de Montesquiou: Paul Helleu: Peintre et graveur (Paris, 1913)

J. E. Blanche: Propos de peintre, iii: De Gauguin à la Revue nègre (Paris, 1928), pp. 115–49

E. de Goncourt and J. de Goncourt: Journal des Goncourts, ix (Paris, 1895; Eng. trans., 1937)

P. Howard-Johnston: ‘“Bonjour M. Elstir”’, Gaz. B.-A., n. s. 6, lxix (1967), pp. 247–50

Exposition Paul Helleu (exh. cat., ed. A.-M. Bergeret-Gourbin and M.-L. Imhoff; Honfleur, Mus. Boudin, 1993)

Jane Abdy

Grove Art online accessed 4/25/14