Drypoint by Paul César Helleu — October 2019

On Wednesday, 2 October 2019, the Société des Amis de Marcel Proust et des Amis de Combray acquired, at public auction at the Hôtel Drouot, a drypoint by Paul-César Helleu. This work enriches the collections of the Maison de Tante Léonie, in Illiers-Combray, offering a singular testimony to the friendship uniting the artist and his circle with Marcel Proust.

The sale catalogue did not specify the identity of the lady depicted. It was Jean-Yves Tadié, vice-president of the Société, who identified her as Mme Helleu, the painter’s wife and a friend of Proust. Beyond the portrait itself, the brochure explores how this print — together with the porcelain décor that accompanies it — may have inspired Proust’s description of Odette de Crécy, weaving an unexpected thread between Helleu’s pictorial world and the pages of the Recherche.

Overview

Madame Helleu écrivant is a colour drypoint by Paul-César Helleu (1859–1927), dated to around 1902 and measuring 39.3 × 29.2 cm. Drypoint is an intaglio printmaking technique in which the copper or zinc plate is incised directly with a steel point; the burr of metal left along the line gives the print a characteristic softness and vivacity, closer to the gesture of the draughtsman than to the burin. The point Helleu used was a diamond one, given to him in 1887 by James Tissot when the latter abandoned the technique. His virtuosity can be read in the speed of the line, the delicacy of the modelling, and his mastery in rendering hair and fur.

The work depicts Alice Helleu, née Louis-Guérin, the painter’s wife and tireless model throughout his career, in the setting of their studio-salon. Dressed in white, she leans on an Empire chest of drawers known as “the Prince Eugène commode” to write — and, by reversing the image with a mirror (since printing reverses the drawing), one discovers that she is tracing the words “Mon cher Paul.” This is the artist’s proof of the series, number 1 of 50 copies, which lends the work an exceptional rarity.

The acquisition took place on 2 October 2019 at the Hôtel Drouot. Although the sale catalogue did not mention the sitter’s identity, Jean-Yves Tadié identified her as Mme Helleu. This portrait holds a direct Proustian interest on several counts: Marcel Proust admired Helleu’s work, maintained a steady correspondence with the painter and his wife until 1922, and Helleu is generally recognised as one of the models for the fictional painter Elstir in À la recherche du temps perdu — Proust himself is said to have greeted him with a “Bonjour, Monsieur Elstir” during a visit around 1918 or 1919. Nor is it impossible that Proust drew on this print, and its décor of white porcelain, to describe Odette de Crécy surrounded by her Saxe china in Du côté de chez Swann.

Authors and Contributors

Élyane Dezon-Jones, professor emerita of French literature, a specialist on Proust and Marguerite Yourcenar, and member of the Société’s board of directors, writes the studies “Saxes et tanagras” and “Une amitié,” as well as the concluding article co-written with Anne Imbert.

Anne Imbert, art historian trained at the École du Louvre (specialising in printmaking), writes the studies devoted to the drypoint technique and to the portrait of Mme Helleu, as well as the concluding article co-written with Élyane Dezon-Jones.

Éric Unger, member of the Société’s board of directors, handled the graphic design of the brochure.

Contents

• Paul Helleu, Portraitist in Drypoint
• Mme Helleu écrivant
• Saxes et tanagras
• Une amitié
• “Bonjour, Monsieur Elstir”

Bibliographic Information

• Format: paperback
• Price: 4 €
• Publisher: Société des Amis de Marcel Proust et des Amis de Combray
• Printer: Chartres Repro
• Legal deposit: November 2019