Paul César Helleu Drypoint Etching

Paul César Helleu (17th December 1859 - 23rd 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 Epoque. He also conceived the ceiling mural of night sky constellations for Grand Central Terminal in New York City. He was the father of Jean Helleu and the grandfather of Jacques Helleu, both artistic directors for Parfums Chanel. This beautiful Drypoint Etching dates to a round 1920 and portrays a stately woman from the Belle Epoque, facing the artist and wearing a wide brimmed hat. It is double mounted and framed in an ebonised frame. Drypoint, an engraving method in which the design to be printed is scratched directly into a copperplate with a sharply pointed instrument. Lines in a drypoint print are characterized by a soft fuzziness caused by ink printed from a burr, a rough ridge of metal thrown up on each side of the furrow of the drypoint line. This etching is signed in pencil in the bottom right hand corner. The provenance of this piece is from a Private Collection in the U.K. Re-framed by framers in Yorkshire, England.