Un-shampooing (self-portrait)
Year: 1893
Description: The artist needs assistance to remove soap from his hair. This drawing was featured on the cover of l'Escarmouche in December 1893.
Provenance: l'Escarmouche, 1893
The Photographer
Year: 1895
Description: This water color features a heavy-set woman about to pose for a photographer. The piece probably dates to the mid 1890s. He appears to have a Rochester Optical New Model Camera which was in production throughout the 1890s. Her swimsuit is typical of the early to mid-1890s style. Courtesy of FC Fine Art
Provenance: L'Estampe Originale
Aux Champs-Elysees
Year: 1895
Description: This is a preparatory drawing used in the creation of a graphic lithograph. Ink, wash, watercolor, graphite, and gouache.
Provenance: Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers
La Cigale et la Fourmi
Year: 1897
Description: Another illustration Jean de La Fontaine's Fables.
Provenance: L'Estampe Originale
Les protecteurs
Year: 1897
Description: Protectorates are autonomous territories defended by a more powerful states. In the late 19th Century, France used this legal mechanism to advance colonial ambitions. Critics such as Hermann-Paul readily exposed hypocrisies between policy and rhetoric.
Provenance: Le Cri de Paris 28 February 1897
Decorum
Year: 1897
Description: The interior of this home is richly decorated.
Provenance: Louvre, Paris
Expansion Coloniale
Year: 1897
Description: In the eyes of the French political left, colonial expansion was a brutish affair. France lost its soul and indigenous their lives.
Provenance: L'Estampe Originale
Portrait d'Alfred Jarry
Year: 1897
Description: Hermann-Paul sketched the playwright Alfred Jarry a year after he achieve fame with Ubu Roi. The premeire was attended by traditionalists and avant garde in equal numbers. The main character's very first word touched off a storm among the former. "Shit!" He intoned. Around the time of this drawing, Jarry attended a literary dinner. He got drunk and took exception with the Belgian poet Christian Beck. Jarry pulled a pistol and fired at him. He died in 1907 of too much tuberculosis, drugs and alcohol. His final request was for a toothpick.
Provenance: L'Estampe Originale
It Is Forbidden To Walk On The Grass
C'est Defendu de Marcher dans L'Herbe
Year: 1898
Description: For as long as humans have cultivated lawns, children have cut across them. "Hey you kids, get offa my yard!" In this 1898 lithograph, a child makes good with his escape with a policeman in hot pursuit.
"C'est Defendu de Marcher dans L'Herbe!!" the officer screams. "It is forbidden to walk on the grass!!" While it was undoubtedly quite traumatic, we're pretty certain the grass survived...
Provenance: Private Gallery
- The Annex Galleries, Santa Rosa, CA (2009)
- L'Estampe Originale
Le Papa de M. Judet
Year: 1898
Description: After Emil Zola published J'Accuse in defense of Dreyfus, he was immediately charged with defamation. The rightwing press savaged both Zola and his deceased father. The leftwing press arose in his defense. Accusations went back and forth. In this illustration, readers carefully consider the latest charges.
Provenance: La Feuille no. 13, June 1898
