Devambez
Encyclopedia
Devambez is the name of a fine printer's firm
in Paris. It operated under that name from 1873, when a printing business established by the royal engraver Hippolyte Brasseux in 1826 was acquired by Édouard Devambez. At first the firm specialized in heraldic engraving, engraved letterheads and invitations. Devambez clients included the House of Orléans
, the House of Bonaparte and the Élysée Palace
. Devambez widened the scope of the business to include advertising and publicity, artists’ prints, luxurious limited edition books, and an important art gallery. The House became recognized as one of the foremost fine engravers in Paris, winning numerous medals and honours. With the artist Edouard Chimot
as Editor after the First World War, a series of limited edition art books, employing leading French artists, illustrators and affichistes, reached a high point under the imprimatur A l'Enseigne du Masque d'Or - the Sign of the Golden Mask and with PAN in collaboration with Paul Poiret.
. Hippolyte Brasseux was a specialist in copper-plate printing and engraving, and also in designing seals, medals, and heraldic devices. The business was based in the Passage des Panoramas, initially at no. 17, and from 1835 at no. 5 owing to the renovation of the Passage. In 1863 it was taken over by M. Beltz who ran it for the next seven years, after which it was bought by Édouard Devambez.
Édouard Devambez was born on 11 March 1844 in Saumont-la-Poterie
, Seine-Maritime
. He served an apprenticeship with the prestigious engravers (and his cousins-in-law) Jules Joseph Foulonneau and Jean Henri Hillekamp at 4, Galerie Vivienne, Paris. When Édouard Devambez married Catherine Veret in 1864, he was entering the illustrious dynasty of Muret and Veret - two families prominent in engraving at the beginning of the 19th century. In 1873, Devambez acquired the atelier at 5, Passage des Panoramas, leaving his worshop of rue Saint-Thomas.
Devambez began exhibiting his work at the Exposition Universelle
in Paris, winning a bronze medal in 1878 and a silver medal in 1889 in the category "artistic printing and heraldic painting".
Among the specialities of La Maison Devambez at this time were: book printing and production; type-founding; engraving on steel, copper, lead, wood, and stone; printing; typography
; lithography
; colour printing and colour lithography; calligraphy; colouring; stamping; binding; gilding; and the sale of inks, paints, journals, ledgers, papers, boxes, stationary, leather goods, and special fabrics.
In 1890, the business moved to 63, Passage des Panoramas, where what began as a simple printing studio became a prestigious store that attracted clients such as the House of Orléans, Roland Bonaparte
, the Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria
and the Élysée Palace and the Hôtel de Ville
, entrusted with the printing of official menus and programmes for receptions for visiting foreign monarchs such as the Emperor of Russia Nicholas II and the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna for their visit in Dunkerque, September 18, 1901. Devambez was also appointed official engraver to the Royal Family of Portugal
. Devambez produced the traditional Livre d’Or (Golden Book, or Presentation Volume) for important events such as visits by the King of Spain or the King of Great Britain, and Livres d’Or for the Pasteur Institute
, the Red Cross and others. After World War I the firm also produced Livres d’Or to commemorate the fallen, for instance the Livre d’Or de la Compagnie Algérienne 1914-1918.
The reputation of La Maison Devambez continued to grow, with further medals at the Expositions Universelles, with a gold medal at Brussels in 1897, a Diploma of Honour at Toronto in 1898, and a gold medal in the category "engraving and printing" at the Exposition Universelle de Paris in 1900. At this exhibition (for which Édouard Devambez served as a member of the jury), he was named a Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, and also obtained the prestigious title of Notable Commerçant.
M. Lahure, reporting on the 1900 Exposition, wrote:
Édouard Devambez died on June 2, 1923.
.
In 1899 he was elected a member of the Société des Artistes Français
, at whose annual Salon he exhibited. In 1890 he won the Grand Prix de Rome
de Peinture. There are nine of his works in the Musée d'Orsay
in Paris, including his most famous painting, La Charge. This dramatic street scene, painted c.1902, shows a violent confrontation between police and demonstrators on the Boulevard Montmartre
, viewed from a high angle. This plunging perspective was one of Devambez’ artistic trademarks, as was the production of paintings on wood in small formats, works known as "les Tout-Petits". A retrospective of his work was held at the Musée de Beauvais
in 1988.
As an artist Devambez was attracted to scenes of modern life, and in 1910, being invited to provide decorative panels for the new French Embassy in Vienna
, he chose the subject of modern inventions, painting the metro, an omnibus, airships and aeroplanes. Sadly these designs have not survived, but an oil painted the same year, now in the Musée d’Orsay, gives an idea of how they must have looked. Entitled Le seul oiseau qui vole au-dessus des nuages (The only bird that flies above the clouds), it employs another breathtaking downward perspective to look down on a biplane flying above a cloud-mass, with glimpses of the ground far below. In 1934 André Devambez was appointed official artist to the newly-created French Air Ministry.
Growing up as he did in a printing shop, it was inevitable that André Devambez would also take up printmaking. He produced a considerable number of etchings, including an album of Douze Eaux-fortes, issued in an edition of 150 copies in 1915. The twelve etchings in this rare album are of First World War subjects, with the following titles: Le Froid; Les Trous d'obus; Le Bouclier; L'Incendie; Un Schraprell; La Pluie; L'Espionne; Les Otages; Gare la Marmite; Les Réserves; Le Charbon; Le Fou. Devambez was also a lithographer.
André Devambez also wrote and illustrated books. Auguste a Mauvais Caractère (Devambez, 1913) was a children's book, with André's own illustrations hand-coloured by the master of the pochoir stencil technique, Jean Saudé
; the original illustrations were exhibited the following year at the Palais de Glace
. This was the first of a number of children's books, including Histoire de la petite Tata et du Gros Patapouf and Les Aventures du Capitaine Mille-Sabords, nos. 8 and 9 in a series of undated stories issued in concertina format "Chez l’auteur". These children's stories were probably intended for the amusement of his son, the archaeologist and curator of Greek and Roman antiquities at the Louvre
, Pierre Devambez (1902–1980) and his daughter Valentine (1907-19xx) artist...
Books illustrated by André Devambez include Émile Zola
, La Fête à Coqueville (Eugène Fasquelle, 1899); Charles Le Goffic
, Le Poilu a Gagné la Guerre (1919); and Claude Farrère
, Les Condamnés à Mort (Édouard-Joseph & L’Illustration, 1920). He also contributed illustrations to Figaro Illustré, Le Rire
, and L’Illustration.
The first Catalogue d’Estampes d’Art, Éditions de Grand Luxe de la Galerie Devambez lists limited edition prints by the following artists: Adler, Baudoux, Berthoud, Boichard, Brouet, Bernard Boutet de Monvel, Bucci, G. Cain, H. Chabanian, G. Charpentier, Damman, Désiré Lucas, Mme Destailleurs-Sevrin, Caro Delvaille, André Devambez, Duchemin, Adrien Étienne [Drian], Fraipont, Pennequin, Albert Guillaume, Labrouche, Herbeaud, J. B. Huet, Maurice Leloir, Lesage, Lorrain, R. Lorrain, Mignot, Mordant, Maurice Neumont, Gabriel Nicolet, Plasse, Richard Ranft, Rochegrosse. Simont, Maurice Taquoy, Raymond Woog, Waidmann. Devambez also published limited edition albums of prints by artists such as Guy Arnoux (for instance Tambours et Trompettes, a set of 10 pochoir prints published in 1918).
No complete list exists of exhibitions held at the Galerie Devambez between 1908 and 1931. However catalogues of many of the shows are in the library of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. Pierre Sanchez has published in 2009 a book on the shows and artists of the gallery.
The first exhibition at Galerie Devambez was a major show of drawings by Auguste Rodin
, exhibited from 19 October to 5 November 1908.
The Rodin show caused shock and outrage because of the erotic nature of many of the drawings. The sculptor F. W. Ruckstull was horrified, writing disapprovingly: ‘In his exhibition of drawings, held October 19, 1908, in the Galerie Devambez, in Paris, he showed the most libidinous set of drawings ever exposed to an invited public, in which there were at least two that were frankly pornographic and for which show he was, by both French and foreign people, called "beast", "monster", "vulgar charlatan", "sadist." etc.’
Others were charmed and delighted by the freshness of Rodin's work. The foreword to the catalogue praised the ‘bold, truthful images’, while the critic of Le Journal wrote that, ‘One cannot find in these hundred and fifty sketches and drawings of Rodin a single note seen before.’
This set the tone for a glittering series of important exhibitions, such as the Première Exposition d’Art Nègre et d’Art Océanien, organized by Paul Guillaume
, 13–19 May 1919, with a catalogue by Henri Clouzot and additional text by Guillaume Apollinaire
. Apollinaire, who died the previous year, had collaborated with Paul Guillaume on the pioneering study Sculptures Nègres in 1917. This exhibition – drawn from Guillaume's private collection - placed African art
at the heart of Modernism
.
Artists exhibiting at Galerie Devambez included Mary Cassatt, Armand Guillaumin, Claude-Oscar Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Auguste Marquet, Paul Signac, Raoul Dufy
, Maurice Vlaminck, Henri Matisse
, Georges Braque
, Pablo Picasso
, Amedeo Modigliani
, Tsuguharu Foujita
, and Giorgio de Chirico
.
The Exposition de Peinture Moderne organised by M. Paul Guillaume in the Galerie Devambez from 27 January to 12 February 1920 with an introductory text by Guillaume Apollinaire
is considered as a turning point in the modern art history. Picasso exhibited four works : Tête, Buste, Nature Morte, and Nu de Femme. Modigliani
exhibited twelve : La Demoiselle du dimanche, Portrait de Jean Cocteau
, La Dame au médaillon, La Collerette blanche, La jolie Fille rousse, Le Liseré noir, Madam Pompadour, Femme au fauteuil, Beatrice, L’Enfant gras, La Rouqine, Tête de Femme, and Raymond. Matisse exhibited one painting, Les Trois sœurs, and four bronze sculptures : Le Serf, Femme accroupie, Tête de femme, and Torse de fillette. Giorgio de Chirico
's important painting Il Ritornante, also exhibited at this show, sold from the collection of Pierre Bergé
- Yves Saint Laurent at Christies in February 2009 for €11,041,00 ($14,285,461).
The catalogue text by Apollinaire reads :
Together, these two important exhibitions curated by Paul Guillaume redefined the spirit and direction of Modernist art in the aftermath of World War I.
The gallery also hosted annual exhibitions of the Salon de l’Araignée, the Société des Peintres-Graveurs, and the Société des Peintres Lithographes.
In this capacity, between 1906 and 1932 Devambez published around 70 general books, mostly illustrated, of which a selection of key titles is listed below.
The appointment of Édouard Chimot
in 1923 as artistic director of a fine press imprint, Les Éditions d’Art Devambez, opened a new era for Devambez. Chimot was among the artists who carried the Symbolist aesthetic forward into the age of Art Deco
. The 1920s were his heyday. This was when his own art was at its most powerful and original, and also when his influence throughout the Parisian art world was most strongly felt.
As artistic director of the fine press Les Éditions d’Art Devambez, Édouard Chimot worked closely with artists such as Pierre Brissaud
, Edgar Chahine, Tsuguharu Foujita
, Drian, Jean Droit, Henri Farge, and Alméry Lobel-Riche. Typically, books published by André Devambez under the direction of Chimot were illustrated with original etchings, in strictly limited editions of a few hundred copies.
In 1929, Devambez published a lavish catalogue, simply entitled Les Éditions d’Art Devambez, in an edition of 100, to be given to his chief collaborators and preferred clients, containing extra proofs from all the books published from 1923-1929. Each copy of this catalogue was numbered and signed by Chimot to a named recipient. As almost all the books are already listed as out-of-print and unobtainable, the catalogue is not a sales pitch, but a record of achievement. To make the 100 books, the publisher bound up existing proof pages, to distribute to those most interested:
Devambez may have regretted the extra expense involved in creating this exquisite calling card, as the Wall Street Crash and subsequent Depression
devastated his market. No one would be buying, or bankrolling, projects such as these in the 1930s. There were several books still in the pipeline, but the glory days of the Chimot/Devambez partnership were over. Some announced books seem to have been cancelled.
The artists involved in Les Éditions d’Art Devambez include Art Deco masters such as Pierre Brissaud (who illustrated three books of the 31 or 32 published) and Drian. Drian was born Adrien Desiré Étienne, into a peasant family in Lorraine. The chatelaine of the village took an interest in the talented boy, but was horrified by his desire to be an artist. So when Adrien Étienne went to Paris to study at the Académie Julian, he took the pseudonym Drian – his own first name, as his contemporaries heard it in his slurred Lorrain accent. He is often listed as Adrien Drian or Étienne Drian, but both are incorrect: the name Drian stands alone, like Erté.
Chimot drew from the wide range of artists from round the world who had settled in Paris in the 1920s : William Walcot was an English artist born in Odessa to a Russian mother; Edgar Chahine and Tigrat Polane were both Armenian émigrés; Tsuguharu Foujita, known to his Montmartre friends as Léonard, was the artist who more than any other infused Japanese art with a modern Western sensibility.
Édouard Chimot himself was the most prolific supplier of original prints to Les Éditions d’Art Devambez, illustrating with etchings Les Chansons du Bilitis, Les Poésies de Méléagre, Les Belles de Nuit, La Femme et le Pantin, and Verlaine
's Parallèlement.
There appears to be one further volume published as part of the same series as those above, but not included in the published catalogue, perhaps because it was deemed too risqué:
Three books announced for 1930 may never have been printed. These were:
During the First World War, Devambez created many posters for the Bureau de Propagande Française à l’Étranger, by artists such as Abel Faivre, André Devambez, Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen, Adolphe Willette, and Jean-Louis Forain.
From 1921 to 1936 Devambez had an exclusive contract with one of the leading poster artists of the day, Leonetto Cappiello
. His most famous posters are for Parapluies Revel, La Belle Jardinière, Cachou Lajaunie, Bouillons Kub, and Le Théâtre National de l’Opéra. Other artists who frequently created posters for Devambez include Lucien Boucher, Roger de Valerio, and Victor Vasarely
.
Devambez also produced books for clients such as railway and shipping companies. These luxurious productions were not for sale, but were given away as promotional items. One typical item, an Art Deco-style guide to fashionable Paris complete with a "List of firms recommended", was published for the French State Railways. Written in English by Jacques Deval, it mimics the style of Anita Loos’ Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The title is …and blondes prefer Paris. Four letters, twenty-two postcards, two night letters and one cable from his sweet, sweet Annabel Flowers to her darling, darling, George Sabran.
, the Parisian trunk maker founded in 1853. The luxury shops of the day were celebrated in the pochoir illustrations by Édouard Halouze in the Almanach du Masque d’Or, in 16 pages of adverts at the back for shops such as Cartier
. Companies such as Moët et Chandon
joined Jeanne Lanvin
, Transatlantic shipping lines and French railway companies in commissioning promotional literature from Devambez.
Most crucial of all these contacts was with the fashion designer Paul Poiret
. In 1928, Poiret and Devambez collaborated on the most luxurious all the de-luxe Devambez books, entitled Pan: Annuaire de Luxe à Paris. It was essentially a collection of 116 Art Deco plates – some pochoir-coloured - advertising all the most exclusive Paris brands, including Van Cleef & Arpels
, Judith Barbier, Mitsubishi, Maigret, Hermès
, Lanvin
, Callot Soeurs
, Maxims, Galeries Lafayette, Jane Régay, Les gants Jouvin, La Tour d'Argent
, Madeleine Vionnet
, Worth, Moulin Rouge
, and Devambez themselves.
The illustrators included Gus Bofa (Madeleine Vionnet), Lucien Boucher (Au Printemps), Raoul Dufy
(La Baule), Charles Martin (Simon), Sem (Maxim's), and Roger de Valerio (Devambez). Despite the beauty and artistic success of the list edited by Chimot for Les Éditions d’Art Devambez, Pan was probably Devambez’ finest hour.
Alongside exquisite leather goods and luxury gifts, Devambez remains devoted above all to beautiful paper, to the art of printing, and to the printing of art.
Printer (publisher)
In publishing, printers are both companies providing printing services and individuals who directly operate printing presses. With the invention of the moveable type printing press by Johannes Gutenberg around 1450, printing—and printers—proliferated throughout Europe.Today, printers are found...
in Paris. It operated under that name from 1873, when a printing business established by the royal engraver Hippolyte Brasseux in 1826 was acquired by Édouard Devambez. At first the firm specialized in heraldic engraving, engraved letterheads and invitations. Devambez clients included the House of Orléans
House of Orleans
Orléans is the name used by several branches of the Royal House of France, all descended in the legitimate male line from the dynasty's founder, Hugh Capet. It became a tradition during France's ancien régime for the duchy of Orléans to be granted as an appanage to a younger son of the king...
, the House of Bonaparte and the Élysée Palace
Élysée Palace
The Élysée Palace is the official residence of the President of the French Republic, containing his office, and is where the Council of Ministers meets. It is located near the Champs-Élysées in Paris....
. Devambez widened the scope of the business to include advertising and publicity, artists’ prints, luxurious limited edition books, and an important art gallery. The House became recognized as one of the foremost fine engravers in Paris, winning numerous medals and honours. With the artist Edouard Chimot
Édouard Chimot
Édouard Chimot was a French artist, illustrator and editor whose career reached its peak in the 1920s in Paris, through the publication of fine quality art-printed books...
as Editor after the First World War, a series of limited edition art books, employing leading French artists, illustrators and affichistes, reached a high point under the imprimatur A l'Enseigne du Masque d'Or - the Sign of the Golden Mask and with PAN in collaboration with Paul Poiret.
1826-1873: The business before Devambez
Devambez was founded in 1826 by Brasseux the younger, engraver to King Charles XCharles X of France
Charles X was known for most of his life as the Comte d'Artois before he reigned as King of France and of Navarre from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. A younger brother to Kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he supported the latter in exile and eventually succeeded him...
. Hippolyte Brasseux was a specialist in copper-plate printing and engraving, and also in designing seals, medals, and heraldic devices. The business was based in the Passage des Panoramas, initially at no. 17, and from 1835 at no. 5 owing to the renovation of the Passage. In 1863 it was taken over by M. Beltz who ran it for the next seven years, after which it was bought by Édouard Devambez.
Édouard Devambez was born on 11 March 1844 in Saumont-la-Poterie
Saumont-la-Poterie
Saumont-la-Poterie is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France.-Geography:A farming village situated in the valley of the Epte river in the Pays de Bray, some northeast of Rouen, at the junction of the D915, D41 and D241 roads.-Population:-Places...
, Seine-Maritime
Seine-Maritime
Seine-Maritime is a French department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France. It is situated on the northern coast of France, at the mouth of the Seine, and includes the cities of Rouen and Le Havre...
. He served an apprenticeship with the prestigious engravers (and his cousins-in-law) Jules Joseph Foulonneau and Jean Henri Hillekamp at 4, Galerie Vivienne, Paris. When Édouard Devambez married Catherine Veret in 1864, he was entering the illustrious dynasty of Muret and Veret - two families prominent in engraving at the beginning of the 19th century. In 1873, Devambez acquired the atelier at 5, Passage des Panoramas, leaving his worshop of rue Saint-Thomas.
Devambez Engraver and Fine Printing
Édouard Devambez was not simply an artisan, but also an artist (described in Bénézit as an engraver of book-plates). This artistic temperament ensured a scrupulous attention to questions of taste, balance and appropriateness in typography, engraving and design.Devambez began exhibiting his work at the Exposition Universelle
Exposition Universelle (1878)
The third Paris World's Fair, called an Exposition Universelle in French, was held from 1 May through to 10 November 1878. It celebrated the recovery of France after the 1870 Franco-Prussian War.-Construction:...
in Paris, winning a bronze medal in 1878 and a silver medal in 1889 in the category "artistic printing and heraldic painting".
Among the specialities of La Maison Devambez at this time were: book printing and production; type-founding; engraving on steel, copper, lead, wood, and stone; printing; typography
Typography
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading , adjusting the spaces between groups of letters and adjusting the space between pairs of letters...
; lithography
Lithography
Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...
; colour printing and colour lithography; calligraphy; colouring; stamping; binding; gilding; and the sale of inks, paints, journals, ledgers, papers, boxes, stationary, leather goods, and special fabrics.
In 1890, the business moved to 63, Passage des Panoramas, where what began as a simple printing studio became a prestigious store that attracted clients such as the House of Orléans, Roland Bonaparte
Roland Bonaparte
Roland Bonaparte, 6th Prince of Canino and Musignano was a French prince and president of the Société de Géographie from 1910 until his death.-Biography:...
, the Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria
Ferdinand I of Bulgaria
Ferdinand , born Ferdinand Maximilian Karl Leopold Maria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry, was the ruler of Bulgaria from 1887 to 1918, first as knyaz and later as tsar...
and the Élysée Palace and the Hôtel de Ville
Hôtel de Ville, Paris
The Hôtel de Ville |City Hall]]) in :Paris, France, is the building housing the City of Paris's administration. Standing on the place de l'Hôtel de Ville in the city's IVe arrondissement, it has been the location of the municipality of Paris since 1357...
, entrusted with the printing of official menus and programmes for receptions for visiting foreign monarchs such as the Emperor of Russia Nicholas II and the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna for their visit in Dunkerque, September 18, 1901. Devambez was also appointed official engraver to the Royal Family of Portugal
House of Braganza-Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
The House of Braganza-Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was a branch of the House of Braganza that ruled the Kingdom of Portugal from 1853 until the declaration of the republic in 1910....
. Devambez produced the traditional Livre d’Or (Golden Book, or Presentation Volume) for important events such as visits by the King of Spain or the King of Great Britain, and Livres d’Or for the Pasteur Institute
Pasteur Institute
The Pasteur Institute is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who made some of the greatest breakthroughs in modern medicine at the time, including pasteurization and vaccines for anthrax...
, the Red Cross and others. After World War I the firm also produced Livres d’Or to commemorate the fallen, for instance the Livre d’Or de la Compagnie Algérienne 1914-1918.
The reputation of La Maison Devambez continued to grow, with further medals at the Expositions Universelles, with a gold medal at Brussels in 1897, a Diploma of Honour at Toronto in 1898, and a gold medal in the category "engraving and printing" at the Exposition Universelle de Paris in 1900. At this exhibition (for which Édouard Devambez served as a member of the jury), he was named a Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, and also obtained the prestigious title of Notable Commerçant.
M. Lahure, reporting on the 1900 Exposition, wrote:
The expansion of the business so far beyond its original boundaries necessitated an expansion of the premises. Rather than moving out of the Passage des Panoramas, where his main rival Stern was also located, Devambez took over two further adjacent shops.
'Monsieur Devambez, with the soul of an artist, loves his art with a passion, but this has not hampered him in making the House of Devambez one of the foremost engravers in Paris. His whole exhibit shows so artistic a taste and so meticulous an execution that the reputation acquired by M. Devambez would have grown even more, if that had been possible.'"
Édouard Devambez died on June 2, 1923.
André Devambez
André Victor Édouard Devambez was born May, 26th, 1867, when his father was 23 and his mother was 22. Growing up in an artistic atmosphere, André Devambez resolved to become an artist. He studied with the portrait painter and orientalist Jean Benjamin-Constant, and also received advice from Gabriel Guay and Jules Lefebvre at the Académie JulianAcadémie Julian
The Académie Julian was an art school in Paris, France.Rodolphe Julian established the Académie Julian in 1868 at the Passage des Panoramas, as a private studio school for art students. The Académie Julian not only prepared students to the exams at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts, but offered...
.
In 1899 he was elected a member of the Société des Artistes Français
Société des artistes français
The Société des Artistes Français is the association of French painters and sculptors established in 1881. Its annual exhibition is called the Salon....
, at whose annual Salon he exhibited. In 1890 he won the Grand Prix de Rome
Prix de Rome
The Prix de Rome was a scholarship for arts students, principally of painting, sculpture, and architecture. It was created, initially for painters and sculptors, in 1663 in France during the reign of Louis XIV. It was an annual bursary for promising artists having proved their talents by...
de Peinture. There are nine of his works in the Musée d'Orsay
Musée d'Orsay
The Musée d'Orsay is a museum in Paris, France, on the left bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, an impressive Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture,...
in Paris, including his most famous painting, La Charge. This dramatic street scene, painted c.1902, shows a violent confrontation between police and demonstrators on the Boulevard Montmartre
Boulevard Montmartre
Thee Boulevard Montmartre is one of the four grands boulevards of Paris. It was constructed in 1763. Contrary to what its name may suggest, the road is not situated on the hills of Montmartre...
, viewed from a high angle. This plunging perspective was one of Devambez’ artistic trademarks, as was the production of paintings on wood in small formats, works known as "les Tout-Petits". A retrospective of his work was held at the Musée de Beauvais
Beauvais
Beauvais is a city approximately by highway north of central Paris, in the northern French region of Picardie. It currently has a population of over 60,000 inhabitants.- History :...
in 1988.
As an artist Devambez was attracted to scenes of modern life, and in 1910, being invited to provide decorative panels for the new French Embassy in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, he chose the subject of modern inventions, painting the metro, an omnibus, airships and aeroplanes. Sadly these designs have not survived, but an oil painted the same year, now in the Musée d’Orsay, gives an idea of how they must have looked. Entitled Le seul oiseau qui vole au-dessus des nuages (The only bird that flies above the clouds), it employs another breathtaking downward perspective to look down on a biplane flying above a cloud-mass, with glimpses of the ground far below. In 1934 André Devambez was appointed official artist to the newly-created French Air Ministry.
Growing up as he did in a printing shop, it was inevitable that André Devambez would also take up printmaking. He produced a considerable number of etchings, including an album of Douze Eaux-fortes, issued in an edition of 150 copies in 1915. The twelve etchings in this rare album are of First World War subjects, with the following titles: Le Froid; Les Trous d'obus; Le Bouclier; L'Incendie; Un Schraprell; La Pluie; L'Espionne; Les Otages; Gare la Marmite; Les Réserves; Le Charbon; Le Fou. Devambez was also a lithographer.
André Devambez also wrote and illustrated books. Auguste a Mauvais Caractère (Devambez, 1913) was a children's book, with André's own illustrations hand-coloured by the master of the pochoir stencil technique, Jean Saudé
Jean Saudé
Jean Saudé was a French printmaker in Paris, known for his mastery of the pochoir technique. He trained with André Marty in the 1890s before starting his own workshop called Ibis. In 1925 he published Traité d'enluminure d'art au pochoir, a guide to the pochoir technique...
; the original illustrations were exhibited the following year at the Palais de Glace
Palais de Glace
The Palace de Glace is a French-style Belle Époque building in the Recoleta neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina, located at 1725 Posadas street...
. This was the first of a number of children's books, including Histoire de la petite Tata et du Gros Patapouf and Les Aventures du Capitaine Mille-Sabords, nos. 8 and 9 in a series of undated stories issued in concertina format "Chez l’auteur". These children's stories were probably intended for the amusement of his son, the archaeologist and curator of Greek and Roman antiquities at the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
, Pierre Devambez (1902–1980) and his daughter Valentine (1907-19xx) artist...
Books illustrated by André Devambez include Émile Zola
Émile Zola
Émile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...
, La Fête à Coqueville (Eugène Fasquelle, 1899); Charles Le Goffic
Charles Le Goffic
Charles Le Goffic was a French poet, novelist and historian whose influence was especially strong in his native Brittany. He was a member of the Académie française.-Biography:...
, Le Poilu a Gagné la Guerre (1919); and Claude Farrère
Claude Farrère
Claude Farrère, pseudonym of Frédéric-Charles Bargone , was a French author of novels set in such exotic locations as Istanbul, Saigon, and Nagasaki. One of his novels, Les civilisés won the Prix Goncourt for 1905. He was elected for a chair at the Académie Française on 26 March 1935...
, Les Condamnés à Mort (Édouard-Joseph & L’Illustration, 1920). He also contributed illustrations to Figaro Illustré, Le Rire
Le Rire
Le Rire, or "Laughter," was a successful humor magazine published from October 1894 through the 1950s. Founded in Paris during the Belle Époque by Felix Juven, Le Rire appeared as typical Parisians began to achieve more education, income and leisure time. Interest in the arts, culture and politics...
, and L’Illustration.
Galerie Devambez
The Galerie Devambez was opened at 43, Boulevard Malesherbes in 1897. Initially it was used purely as a sales outlet for original prints – lithographs, etchings, drypoints – and facsimile prints of watercolours. During the First World War the Galerie was used by the Louvre (which was closed) to sell prints created by the Chalcographie du Louvre.The first Catalogue d’Estampes d’Art, Éditions de Grand Luxe de la Galerie Devambez lists limited edition prints by the following artists: Adler, Baudoux, Berthoud, Boichard, Brouet, Bernard Boutet de Monvel, Bucci, G. Cain, H. Chabanian, G. Charpentier, Damman, Désiré Lucas, Mme Destailleurs-Sevrin, Caro Delvaille, André Devambez, Duchemin, Adrien Étienne [Drian], Fraipont, Pennequin, Albert Guillaume, Labrouche, Herbeaud, J. B. Huet, Maurice Leloir, Lesage, Lorrain, R. Lorrain, Mignot, Mordant, Maurice Neumont, Gabriel Nicolet, Plasse, Richard Ranft, Rochegrosse. Simont, Maurice Taquoy, Raymond Woog, Waidmann. Devambez also published limited edition albums of prints by artists such as Guy Arnoux (for instance Tambours et Trompettes, a set of 10 pochoir prints published in 1918).
No complete list exists of exhibitions held at the Galerie Devambez between 1908 and 1931. However catalogues of many of the shows are in the library of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. Pierre Sanchez has published in 2009 a book on the shows and artists of the gallery.
The first exhibition at Galerie Devambez was a major show of drawings by Auguste Rodin
Auguste Rodin
François-Auguste-René Rodin , known as Auguste Rodin , was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past...
, exhibited from 19 October to 5 November 1908.
The Rodin show caused shock and outrage because of the erotic nature of many of the drawings. The sculptor F. W. Ruckstull was horrified, writing disapprovingly: ‘In his exhibition of drawings, held October 19, 1908, in the Galerie Devambez, in Paris, he showed the most libidinous set of drawings ever exposed to an invited public, in which there were at least two that were frankly pornographic and for which show he was, by both French and foreign people, called "beast", "monster", "vulgar charlatan", "sadist." etc.’
Others were charmed and delighted by the freshness of Rodin's work. The foreword to the catalogue praised the ‘bold, truthful images’, while the critic of Le Journal wrote that, ‘One cannot find in these hundred and fifty sketches and drawings of Rodin a single note seen before.’
This set the tone for a glittering series of important exhibitions, such as the Première Exposition d’Art Nègre et d’Art Océanien, organized by Paul Guillaume
Paul Guillaume
Paul Guillaume was a French art dealer. Dealer of Chaim Soutine and Amedeo Modigliani, he was one of the first to organize African art exhibitions...
, 13–19 May 1919, with a catalogue by Henri Clouzot and additional text by Guillaume Apollinaire
Guillaume Apollinaire
Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki, known as Guillaume Apollinaire was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic born in Italy to a Polish mother....
. Apollinaire, who died the previous year, had collaborated with Paul Guillaume on the pioneering study Sculptures Nègres in 1917. This exhibition – drawn from Guillaume's private collection - placed African art
African art
African art constitutes one of the most diverse legacies on earth. Though many casual observers tend to generalize "traditional" African art, the continent is full of people, societies, and civilizations, each with a unique visual special culture. The definition also includes the art of the African...
at the heart of Modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
.
Artists exhibiting at Galerie Devambez included Mary Cassatt, Armand Guillaumin, Claude-Oscar Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Auguste Marquet, Paul Signac, Raoul Dufy
Raoul Dufy
Raoul Dufy[p] was a French Fauvist painter. He developed a colorful, decorative style that became fashionable for designs of ceramics and textiles, as well as decorative schemes for public buildings. He is noted for scenes of open-air social events...
, Maurice Vlaminck, Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter...
, Georges Braque
Georges Braque
Georges Braque[p] was a major 20th century French painter and sculptor who, along with Pablo Picasso, developed the art style known as Cubism.-Early Life:...
, Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
, Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. Primarily a figurative artist, he became known for paintings and sculptures in a modern style characterized by mask-like faces and elongation of form...
, Tsuguharu Foujita
Tsuguharu Foujita
was a painter and printmaker born in Tokyo, Japan who applied Japanese ink techniques to Western style paintings.- Education :In 1910 when he was twenty-four years old Foujita graduated from what is now the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music....
, and Giorgio de Chirico
Giorgio de Chirico
Giorgio de Chirico was a pre-Surrealist and then Surrealist Italian painter born in Volos, Greece, to a Genovese mother and a Sicilian father. He founded the scuola metafisica art movement...
.
The Exposition de Peinture Moderne organised by M. Paul Guillaume in the Galerie Devambez from 27 January to 12 February 1920 with an introductory text by Guillaume Apollinaire
Guillaume Apollinaire
Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki, known as Guillaume Apollinaire was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic born in Italy to a Polish mother....
is considered as a turning point in the modern art history. Picasso exhibited four works : Tête, Buste, Nature Morte, and Nu de Femme. Modigliani
Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. Primarily a figurative artist, he became known for paintings and sculptures in a modern style characterized by mask-like faces and elongation of form...
exhibited twelve : La Demoiselle du dimanche, Portrait de Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
, La Dame au médaillon, La Collerette blanche, La jolie Fille rousse, Le Liseré noir, Madam Pompadour, Femme au fauteuil, Beatrice, L’Enfant gras, La Rouqine, Tête de Femme, and Raymond. Matisse exhibited one painting, Les Trois sœurs, and four bronze sculptures : Le Serf, Femme accroupie, Tête de femme, and Torse de fillette. Giorgio de Chirico
Giorgio de Chirico
Giorgio de Chirico was a pre-Surrealist and then Surrealist Italian painter born in Volos, Greece, to a Genovese mother and a Sicilian father. He founded the scuola metafisica art movement...
's important painting Il Ritornante, also exhibited at this show, sold from the collection of Pierre Bergé
Pierre Bergé
Pierre Bergé is a French industrialist and patron. He is perhaps best known as the co-founder of Yves Saint Laurent Couture House and former partner of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent.-Early life:...
- Yves Saint Laurent at Christies in February 2009 for €11,041,00 ($14,285,461).
The catalogue text by Apollinaire reads :
Les grands poètes et les grands artistes ont pour fonction de renouveler sans cesse l'apparence que revêt la nature aux yeux des hommes. Sans les poètes, sans les artistes les hommes s'ennuieraient vite de la monotonie naturelle. L'idée sublime qu'ils ont de l'univers retomberait avec une vitesse vertigineuse. L'ordre qui paraît dans la nature et qui n'est qu'un effet de l'art s'évanouirait aussitôt. Tout se déferait dans le chaos. Plus de saison, plus de vie même et l'impuissante obscurité règnerait à jamais. Les poètes et les artistes déterminent de concert la figure de leur époque et docilement l'avenir se range à leur avis.
(Great poets and great artists have the role of renewing ceaselessly the appearance with which the world is invested in the eyes of mankind. Without poets and without artists, men would swiftly become bored by the monotony of natural order. The sublime concept of the Universe which they have would collapse with headlong suddenness. The order which seems to exist in nature, and which is merely an effect of art, would simultaneously evaporate. Everything would be dissolved in chaos. No more seasons, no more life even, and impotent darkness would reign for all time. Poets and artists together define the character of their age, and what is to come pliantly disposes itself according to their precepts.)
Together, these two important exhibitions curated by Paul Guillaume redefined the spirit and direction of Modernist art in the aftermath of World War I.
The gallery also hosted annual exhibitions of the Salon de l’Araignée, the Société des Peintres-Graveurs, and the Société des Peintres Lithographes.
Devambez publishing
Long-established as a printer, Devambez only ventured into book publishing at the start of the twentieth century, the first being in 1908, a book by Georges Cain on La Place Vendôme. The publishing business was carried out from premises at 23, rue Lavoisier. Books were published either simply under the name Devambez, as Devambez Éditions de Luxe, or as À l’Enseigne du Masque d’Or, Devambez ; the term Masque d’Or was also used for two beautiful Art Deco almanacks for the years 1921 and 1922, illustrated with pochoir prints by Édouard Halouze.In this capacity, between 1906 and 1932 Devambez published around 70 general books, mostly illustrated, of which a selection of key titles is listed below.
- Georges Cain, La Place Vendôme, 1908
- Eugène Belville, Monogrammes, Cachets, Marques, Ex-Libris, 1910
- Léon BourgeoisLéon Bourgeois-Biography:He was born in Paris, and was trained in law. After holding a subordinate office in the department of public works, he became successively prefect of the Tarn and the Haute-Garonne , and then returned to Paris to enter the ministry of the interior...
et al., La Misère Sociale de la Femme, 1910 - René Peter, La Création du Monde, ill. René Peter, 1912
- A. Bernheim, Autour de la Comédie Française, 1913
- Jacques Boulanger, Le plus rare Voscelett du Monde, ill. Pierre BrissaudPierre BrissaudPierre Brissaud was a French Art Deco illustrator, painter, and engraver whose father was Docteur Edouard Brissaud. He was born in Paris and trained at the École des Beaux-Arts and Atelier Fernand Cormon in Montmartre, Paris. His fellow Cormon students were his brother Jacques, André-Édouard...
, 1913 - Charles Fouqueray, Le Front de Mer, ill. Charles Fouqueray, [1916]
- Charles Fouqueray, Les Fusiliers-Marins au Front de Flandres, ill. Charles Fouqueray, [1916]
- René BenjaminRené BenjaminRené Benjamin was a French author. In 1915, he received the Prix Goncourt for his novel Gaspard. In 1938, he became the first Goncourt laureate to be appointed a member of the Académie Goncourt, the jury that decides the winner of the prize....
, Les Soldats de la Guerre, Gaspard, ill. Jean Lefort, 1917 - Louis RaemaekersLouis RaemaekersLouis Raemaekers was a Dutch painter and cartoonist for the Amsterdam Telegraaf during World War I, noted for his anti-German stance....
, La Guerre, ill. Louis Raemaekers, [1917] - Roger Boutet de Monvel, Nos Frères d’Amérique, ill. Guy Arnoux, 1918
- Lucien Lévy-DhurmerLucien Lévy-DhurmerLucien Lévy-Dhurmer was a French Symbolist/Art Nouveau artist whose works include paintings, drawings, ceramics, furniture and interior design.-Biography:...
, Les Mères pendant la Guerre, ill. Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer, 1918 - Georges-Victor Hugo, Sur le Front de Champagne, ill. Georges-Victor Hugo, 1918
- Guy Arnoux, Histoire de la Ramée, ill. Guy Arnoux, 1919
- Jean-Paul Alaux, Visions Japonaises, ill. Jean-Paul Alaux, 1920
- Almanach du Masque d’Or pour l’année 1921, ill. Édouard Halouze, 1920
- Guy Arnoux, Les Caractères, ill. Guy Arnoux, [1920]
- Jacques Boulanger, De la Valse au Tango, ill. Cappiello, Sem, Drian, Domergue, Guy Arnoux, De Goyon, Halouze, 1920
- Marc Elder, À Bord des Chalutiers Dragueurs de Mines, ill. René Pinard, 1920
- Claude FarrèreClaude FarrèreClaude Farrère, pseudonym of Frédéric-Charles Bargone , was a French author of novels set in such exotic locations as Istanbul, Saigon, and Nagasaki. One of his novels, Les civilisés won the Prix Goncourt for 1905. He was elected for a chair at the Académie Française on 26 March 1935...
, Vieille Marine, ill. Guy Arnoux, 1920 - René Kerdyk, Les Femmes de ce Temps, ill. Guy Arnoux, 1920
- Edgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
, Une Descente dans le Maelström, ill. Marc Roux, 1920 - Madeleine de ScudéryMadeleine de ScudéryMadeleine de Scudéry , often known simply as Mademoiselle de Scudéry, was a French writer. She was the younger sister of author Georges de Scudéry.-Biography:...
, La Promenade de Versailles, ill. Robert Mahias, 1920 - Laurence SterneLaurence SterneLaurence Sterne was an Irish novelist and an Anglican clergyman. He is best known for his novels The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, and A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy; but he also published many sermons, wrote memoirs, and was involved in local politics...
, Voyage Sentimental en France et en Italie, ill. Édouard Halouze, 1920 - Almanach du Masque d’Or pour l’année 1922, ill. Édouard Halouze, 1921
- Léon Arnoult, La Variabilité du Gout dans les Arts, 1921
- Jean de la FontaineJean de La FontaineJean de La Fontaine was the most famous French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his Fables, which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Europe and numerous alternative versions in France, and in French regional...
, Adonis, intro. Paul ValéryPaul ValéryAmbroise-Paul-Toussaint-Jules Valéry was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. His interests were sufficiently broad that he can be classified as a polymath...
, 1921 - Prosper MériméeProsper MériméeProsper Mérimée was a French dramatist, historian, archaeologist, and short story writer. He is perhaps best known for his novella Carmen, which became the basis of Bizet's opera Carmen.-Life:...
, La Double Méprise, 1922 - Jean-Paul Alaux, L’Histoire Merveilleuse de Christophe Colomb, ill. Gustave Alaux, 1924
- Georges-Marie Haardt and Louis Adouin-Dubreuil, Les Nuits du Hoggar: Poèmes Touareg, ill. Galanis after Robert-Raphaël Hardt, 1926
- Adolphe WilletteAdolphe WilletteAdolphe-Léon Willette was a French painter, illustrator, caricaturist, and lithographer. Willette ran as an "anti-semitic" candidate in the 19th arrondisement of Paris for the 1889 elections.-Biography:...
, Les Sept Péchés Capitaux, ill. Adolphe Willette, 1926 - Les Arcades des Champs-Élysées, Une Merveille du Paris Moderne, ill. Raoul Serres and Lauro, 1927
- Guy Arnoux, Chansons du Marin Français, ill. Guy Arnoux, 1928
- Cherronet, Jean CocteauJean CocteauJean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
, Corbière, Dekobra, Etchegouin, Fouquières, Mac Orlan, and Edmond RostandEdmond RostandEdmond Eugène Alexis Rostand was a French poet and dramatist. He is associated with neo-romanticism, and is best known for his play Cyrano de Bergerac. Rostand's romantic plays provided an alternative to the naturalistic theatre popular during the late nineteenth century...
, Deauville, La Plage Fleurie, ill. Angoletta, Boucher, Dubaut, Gallibert, Geo Ham, Sem, Valerio, Vertès, 1930 - Pierre Mac OrlanPierre Mac OrlanPierre Mac Orlan, sometimes written MacOrlan, was a French novelist and songwriter.His novel Quai des Brumes was the source for Marcel Carné's 1938 film of the same name, starring Jean Gabin...
, La Croix, L’Ancre et la Grenade, ill. Lucien Boucher, 1932
Édouard Chimot and Les Editions d'Art Devambez
The books listed above do not include those published from 1923 to 1931 under the name Éditions d’Art Devambez, which was a separate series of artist's books.The appointment of Édouard Chimot
Édouard Chimot
Édouard Chimot was a French artist, illustrator and editor whose career reached its peak in the 1920s in Paris, through the publication of fine quality art-printed books...
in 1923 as artistic director of a fine press imprint, Les Éditions d’Art Devambez, opened a new era for Devambez. Chimot was among the artists who carried the Symbolist aesthetic forward into the age of Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
. The 1920s were his heyday. This was when his own art was at its most powerful and original, and also when his influence throughout the Parisian art world was most strongly felt.
As artistic director of the fine press Les Éditions d’Art Devambez, Édouard Chimot worked closely with artists such as Pierre Brissaud
Pierre Brissaud
Pierre Brissaud was a French Art Deco illustrator, painter, and engraver whose father was Docteur Edouard Brissaud. He was born in Paris and trained at the École des Beaux-Arts and Atelier Fernand Cormon in Montmartre, Paris. His fellow Cormon students were his brother Jacques, André-Édouard...
, Edgar Chahine, Tsuguharu Foujita
Tsuguharu Foujita
was a painter and printmaker born in Tokyo, Japan who applied Japanese ink techniques to Western style paintings.- Education :In 1910 when he was twenty-four years old Foujita graduated from what is now the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music....
, Drian, Jean Droit, Henri Farge, and Alméry Lobel-Riche. Typically, books published by André Devambez under the direction of Chimot were illustrated with original etchings, in strictly limited editions of a few hundred copies.
In 1929, Devambez published a lavish catalogue, simply entitled Les Éditions d’Art Devambez, in an edition of 100, to be given to his chief collaborators and preferred clients, containing extra proofs from all the books published from 1923-1929. Each copy of this catalogue was numbered and signed by Chimot to a named recipient. As almost all the books are already listed as out-of-print and unobtainable, the catalogue is not a sales pitch, but a record of achievement. To make the 100 books, the publisher bound up existing proof pages, to distribute to those most interested:
In order to construct a catalogue in this way, all copies of the book must be unique in their content.
'Ce n’est pas un catalogue de reproductions que nous lui offrons, mais les précieux défets des livres eux-mêmes: les eaux-fortes du tirage et les feuilles typographiques du tirage, imprimées sur les différents papiers employés pour chaque édition.'
Devambez may have regretted the extra expense involved in creating this exquisite calling card, as the Wall Street Crash and subsequent Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
devastated his market. No one would be buying, or bankrolling, projects such as these in the 1930s. There were several books still in the pipeline, but the glory days of the Chimot/Devambez partnership were over. Some announced books seem to have been cancelled.
The artists involved in Les Éditions d’Art Devambez include Art Deco masters such as Pierre Brissaud (who illustrated three books of the 31 or 32 published) and Drian. Drian was born Adrien Desiré Étienne, into a peasant family in Lorraine. The chatelaine of the village took an interest in the talented boy, but was horrified by his desire to be an artist. So when Adrien Étienne went to Paris to study at the Académie Julian, he took the pseudonym Drian – his own first name, as his contemporaries heard it in his slurred Lorrain accent. He is often listed as Adrien Drian or Étienne Drian, but both are incorrect: the name Drian stands alone, like Erté.
Chimot drew from the wide range of artists from round the world who had settled in Paris in the 1920s : William Walcot was an English artist born in Odessa to a Russian mother; Edgar Chahine and Tigrat Polane were both Armenian émigrés; Tsuguharu Foujita, known to his Montmartre friends as Léonard, was the artist who more than any other infused Japanese art with a modern Western sensibility.
Édouard Chimot himself was the most prolific supplier of original prints to Les Éditions d’Art Devambez, illustrating with etchings Les Chansons du Bilitis, Les Poésies de Méléagre, Les Belles de Nuit, La Femme et le Pantin, and Verlaine
Verlaine
Verlaine is a municipality of Belgium. It lies in the country's Walloon Region and Province of Liege. On January 1, 2006 Verlaine had a total population of 3,507. The total area is 24.21 km² which gives a population density of 145 inhabitants per km². The municipality contains the villages...
's Parallèlement.
List of books published under the imprint Les Éditions d’Art Devambez
(See References for sources of this listing.)- Anatole FranceAnatole FranceAnatole France , born François-Anatole Thibault, , was a French poet, journalist, and novelist. He was born in Paris, and died in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire. He was a successful novelist, with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters...
, Le Petit Pierre, ill. Pierre Brissaud, 1923 - Anatole FranceAnatole FranceAnatole France , born François-Anatole Thibault, , was a French poet, journalist, and novelist. He was born in Paris, and died in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire. He was a successful novelist, with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters...
, La Vie en Fleur, ill. Pierre Brissaud, 1924 - Henri de RegnierHenri de RégnierHenri François Joseph de Régnier was a French symbolist poet, considered one of the most important of France during the early 20th century....
, La Canne de Jaspe, ill. Drian, 1924 - Pierre LouÿsPierre LouÿsPierre Louÿs was a French poet and writer, most renowned for lesbian and classical themes in some of his writings. He is known as a writer who "expressed pagan sensuality with stylistic perfection."-Life:...
, Les Chansons de Bilitis, ill, Édouard Chimot, 1925 - Maurice BarrèsMaurice BarrèsMaurice Barrès was a French novelist, journalist, and socialist politician and agitator known for his nationalist and antisemitic views....
, La Mort de Vénise, ill. Edgar Chahine, 1926 - Claude FarrèreClaude FarrèreClaude Farrère, pseudonym of Frédéric-Charles Bargone , was a French author of novels set in such exotic locations as Istanbul, Saigon, and Nagasaki. One of his novels, Les civilisés won the Prix Goncourt for 1905. He was elected for a chair at the Académie Française on 26 March 1935...
, L’Homme qui Assassina, ill. Henri Farge, 1926 - Gustave FlaubertGustave FlaubertGustave Flaubert was a French writer who is counted among the greatest Western novelists. He is known especially for his first published novel, Madame Bovary , and for his scrupulous devotion to his art and style.-Early life and education:Flaubert was born on December 12, 1821, in Rouen,...
, Salammbô, ill. William Walcot, 1926 - Pierre LotiPierre LotiPierre Loti was a French novelist and naval officer.-Biography:Loti's education began in his birthplace, Rochefort, Charente-Maritime. At the age of seventeen he entered the naval school in Brest and studied at Le Borda. He gradually rose in his profession, attaining the rank of captain in 1906...
, La Troisième Jeunesse de Madame Prune, ill. Tsuguharu Foujita, 1926 - Pierre LouÿsPierre LouÿsPierre Louÿs was a French poet and writer, most renowned for lesbian and classical themes in some of his writings. He is known as a writer who "expressed pagan sensuality with stylistic perfection."-Life:...
, Les Poésies de Méléagre, ill. Édouard Chimot, 1926 - Alphonse DaudetAlphonse DaudetAlphonse Daudet was a French novelist. He was the father of Léon Daudet and Lucien Daudet.- Early life :Alphonse Daudet was born in Nîmes, France. His family, on both sides, belonged to the bourgeoisie. The father, Vincent Daudet, was a silk manufacturer — a man dogged through life by misfortune...
, Les Lettres de mon Moulin, ill. Jean Droit, 1927 - Joseph ArthurJoseph ArthurJoseph Arthur is an American singer-songwriter and artist from Akron, Ohio. Combining poetic lyrics with a layered sonic palette, Arthur has built his reputation over the years through critically acclaimed releases and constant touring; his unique solo live performances incorporate the use of a...
, Comte de Gobineau, Les Nouvelles Asiatiques, ill. Henri Le Riche, 1927 - Jean LorrainJean LorrainJean Lorrain , born Paul Duval, was a French poet and novelist of the Symbolist school....
, Monsieur de Bougrelon, ill, Drian, 1927 - Maurice Magre, Les Belles de Nuit, ill. Édouard Chimot, 1927
- André SuarèsAndré SuarèsAndré Suarès was one of the pseudonyms used by Félix-André-Yves Scantrel a French poet and critic....
, Le Livre de L’Émeraude, ill. Auguste Brouet, 1927 - Maurice BarrèsMaurice BarrèsMaurice Barrès was a French novelist, journalist, and socialist politician and agitator known for his nationalist and antisemitic views....
, Greco ou le secret de Tolède, ill. Auguste Brouet, 1928 - Alphonse DaudetAlphonse DaudetAlphonse Daudet was a French novelist. He was the father of Léon Daudet and Lucien Daudet.- Early life :Alphonse Daudet was born in Nîmes, France. His family, on both sides, belonged to the bourgeoisie. The father, Vincent Daudet, was a silk manufacturer — a man dogged through life by misfortune...
, Les Contes du Lundi, ill. Pierre Brissaud, 1928 - Gustave FlaubertGustave FlaubertGustave Flaubert was a French writer who is counted among the greatest Western novelists. He is known especially for his first published novel, Madame Bovary , and for his scrupulous devotion to his art and style.-Early life and education:Flaubert was born on December 12, 1821, in Rouen,...
, Hérodias, ill. William Walcot, 1928 - Pierre LouÿsPierre LouÿsPierre Louÿs was a French poet and writer, most renowned for lesbian and classical themes in some of his writings. He is known as a writer who "expressed pagan sensuality with stylistic perfection."-Life:...
, La Femme et le Pantin, ill. Édouard Chimot, 1928 - Alphonse de ChateaubriantAlphonse de ChâteaubriantAlphonse Van Bredenbeck de Châteaubriant was a French writer who won the Prix Goncourt in 1911 for his novel Monsieur de Lourdines and Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française for La Brière in 1923....
, Monsieur de Lourdines, ill. Henri Jourdain, 1929 - Gustave FlaubertGustave FlaubertGustave Flaubert was a French writer who is counted among the greatest Western novelists. He is known especially for his first published novel, Madame Bovary , and for his scrupulous devotion to his art and style.-Early life and education:Flaubert was born on December 12, 1821, in Rouen,...
, Novembre, ill. Edgar Chahine, 1929 - Joris-Karl HuysmansJoris-Karl HuysmansCharles-Marie-Georges Huysmans was a French novelist who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans . He is most famous for the novel À rebours...
, Le Drageoir aux Épices, ill. Auguste Brouet, 1929 - Marie-Magdelaine Pioche de la Vergne, Comtesse de Lafayette, La Princesse de Clèves, ill. Drian, 1929
- Alfred de MussetAlfred de MussetAlfred Louis Charles de Musset-Pathay was a French dramatist, poet, and novelist.Along with his poetry, he is known for writing La Confession d'un enfant du siècle from 1836.-Biography:Musset was born on 11 December 1810 in Paris...
, La Nuit Vénitienne, ill. Jean-Gabriel Domergue, 1929 - Émile VerhaerenEmile VerhaerenEmile Verhaeren was a Belgian poet who wrote in the French language, and one of the chief founders of the school of Symbolism....
, Les Villages Illusoires, ill. J. van Santen, 1929 - René BoylesveRené BoylesveRené Boylesve , born René Marie Auguste Tardiveau, was a French author.-Works:* Le Médecin des Dames de Néans ,* Mademoiselle Cloque ,* La Becquée ,...
, Nymphes dansant avec des Satyres, ill. Tigrane Polat, 1930 - ColetteColetteColette was the surname of the French novelist and performer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette . She is best known for her novel Gigi, upon which Lerner and Loewe based the stage and film musical comedies of the same title.-Early life and marriage:Colette was born to retired military officer Jules-Joseph...
, Mitsou, ill. Edgar Chahine, 1930 - Ovide, Métamorphoses, ill. André Lambert, 1930
- André SuarèsAndré SuarèsAndré Suarès was one of the pseudonyms used by Félix-André-Yves Scantrel a French poet and critic....
, Le Voyage du Condottière, ill. Louis Jou, 1930 - Oscar WildeOscar WildeOscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
, Salomé, ill. Alméry Lobel-Riche, 1930 - Joris-Karl HuysmansJoris-Karl HuysmansCharles-Marie-Georges Huysmans was a French novelist who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans . He is most famous for the novel À rebours...
, Marthe, ill. Auguste Brouet, 1931 - Paul VerlainePaul VerlainePaul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.-Early life:...
, Parallèlement, ill. Édouard Chimot, 1931
There appears to be one further volume published as part of the same series as those above, but not included in the published catalogue, perhaps because it was deemed too risqué:
- Petite Mythologie Galante à l'usage des Dames, Les Dieux Majeurs, ill. André Lambert, 1928
Three books announced for 1930 may never have been printed. These were:
- Anatole FranceAnatole FranceAnatole France , born François-Anatole Thibault, , was a French poet, journalist, and novelist. He was born in Paris, and died in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire. He was a successful novelist, with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters...
, Crainquebille, ill. Auguste Brouet - Stéphane MallarméStéphane MallarméStéphane Mallarmé , whose real name was Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools of the early 20th century, such as Dadaism, Surrealism, and Futurism.-Biography:Stéphane...
, Poésies, ill. Édouard Chimot - Albert SamainAlbert SamainAlbert Victor Samain was a French poet and writer of the Symbolist school.Born in Lille, his family were Flemish and had long lived in the town or its suburbs. At the time of the poet's birth, his father, Jean-Baptiste Samain, and his mother, Elisa-Henriette Mouquet, conducted a business in "wines...
, Le Jardin de l’Infante, ill. Édouard Chimot
Devambez and advertising
Devambez was a pioneering advertising agency. They produced posters, catalogues (for instance a catalogue for Chrysler designed by Valerio), and adverts. An article in the Commercial Art Magazine in May 1928 notes that Devambez had already discovered the secrets of creating a brand: "In direct advertising he devotes particular attention to arousing the interest of possible buyers by objects which are not specific advertisements, but create a favourable disposition towards the advertiser on whose behalf they are produced.'During the First World War, Devambez created many posters for the Bureau de Propagande Française à l’Étranger, by artists such as Abel Faivre, André Devambez, Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen, Adolphe Willette, and Jean-Louis Forain.
From 1921 to 1936 Devambez had an exclusive contract with one of the leading poster artists of the day, Leonetto Cappiello
Leonetto Cappiello
Leonetto Cappiello was an Italian poster art designer who lived in Paris. He is now often called 'the father of modern advertising' because of his innovation in poster design...
. His most famous posters are for Parapluies Revel, La Belle Jardinière, Cachou Lajaunie, Bouillons Kub, and Le Théâtre National de l’Opéra. Other artists who frequently created posters for Devambez include Lucien Boucher, Roger de Valerio, and Victor Vasarely
Victor Vasarely
Victor Vasarely was a Hungarian French artist whose work is generally seen aligned with Op-art.His work entitled Zebra, created by Vasarely in the 1930s, is considered by some to be one of the earliest examples of Op-art...
.
Devambez also produced books for clients such as railway and shipping companies. These luxurious productions were not for sale, but were given away as promotional items. One typical item, an Art Deco-style guide to fashionable Paris complete with a "List of firms recommended", was published for the French State Railways. Written in English by Jacques Deval, it mimics the style of Anita Loos’ Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The title is …and blondes prefer Paris. Four letters, twenty-two postcards, two night letters and one cable from his sweet, sweet Annabel Flowers to her darling, darling, George Sabran.
PAN, Annuaire du Luxe à Paris, Paul Poiret
La Maison Devambez became intimately connected with the other grand houses of fashionable Paris. The 1927 book Les Arcades des Champs Élysées celebrated the achievement of the architect Marcel Duhayon. Marcel Duhayon designed luxury hotels in Paris : Hotel Royal Monceau, Hotel Commodore, Hotel California, Grand Hotel des Ambassadeurs. He was the uncle of Suzanne Goyard, the wife of François Goyard, the grand-grand son of the founder of GoyardGoyard
Goyard is a French luggage manufacturer established in 1853 by François Goyard , located on the rue Saint-Honoré in Paris.-History:François Goyard was born on 8 September 1828, in Clamecy, Burgundy...
, the Parisian trunk maker founded in 1853. The luxury shops of the day were celebrated in the pochoir illustrations by Édouard Halouze in the Almanach du Masque d’Or, in 16 pages of adverts at the back for shops such as Cartier
Cartier SA
Cartier S.A., commonly known as Cartier , is a French luxury jeweler and watch manufacturer. The corporation carries the name of the Cartier family of jewellers whose control ended in 1964 and who were known for numerous pieces including the "Bestiary" , the diamond necklace created for Bhupinder...
. Companies such as Moët et Chandon
Moët et Chandon
Moët & Chandon , or Moët, is a French winery and co-owner of the luxury goods company Moët-Hennessy • Louis Vuitton. Moët et Chandon is one of the world's largest champagne producers and a prominent champagne house. The company holds a Royal Warrant to supply champagne to Elizabeth II...
joined Jeanne Lanvin
Jeanne Lanvin
Jeanne-Marie Lanvin was a French fashion designer and the founder of the Lanvin fashion house.One of the most influential designers of the 1920s and '30s, Jeanne Lanvin's skillful use of intricate trimmings, virtuoso embroideries and beaded decorations in clear, light, floral colors became a...
, Transatlantic shipping lines and French railway companies in commissioning promotional literature from Devambez.
Most crucial of all these contacts was with the fashion designer Paul Poiret
Paul Poiret
Paul Poiret was a French fashion designer. His contributions to twentieth-century fashion have been likened to Picasso's contributions to twentieth-century art.-Early life and career:...
. In 1928, Poiret and Devambez collaborated on the most luxurious all the de-luxe Devambez books, entitled Pan: Annuaire de Luxe à Paris. It was essentially a collection of 116 Art Deco plates – some pochoir-coloured - advertising all the most exclusive Paris brands, including Van Cleef & Arpels
Van Cleef & Arpels
Van Cleef & Arpels is a French jewellery, watch, and perfume company that was founded in 1896 by Charles Arpels and Alfred Van Cleef. They opened their first boutique in 1906 at 22 place Vendôme, Paris...
, Judith Barbier, Mitsubishi, Maigret, Hermès
Hermès
Hermès International S.A., or simply Hermès is a French high fashion house established in 1837, today specializing in leather, lifestyle accessories, perfumery, luxury goods, and ready-to-wear...
, Lanvin
Lanvin (clothing)
Lanvin is a high fashion house founded by Jeanne Lanvin.-History:Lanvin made such beautiful clothes for her daughter that they began to attract the attention of a number of wealthy people who requested copies for their own children...
, Callot Soeurs
Callot Soeurs
Callot Soeurs was a fashion design house opened in 1895 at 24, rue Taitbout in Paris, France. It was operated by the four Callot sisters: Marie Callot Gerber, Marthe Callot Bertrand, Regina Callot Tennyson-Chantrell and Joséphine Callot Crimont. The eldest sister, Marie, was trained in dressmaking...
, Maxims, Galeries Lafayette, Jane Régay, Les gants Jouvin, La Tour d'Argent
Tour d'Argent
La Tour d'Argent is a restaurant in Paris, France.The restaurant's own site claims that it was founded in 1582 and frequented by Henri IV. However, neither the restaurant nor any cabaret, inn, etc...
, Madeleine Vionnet
Madeleine Vionnet
This article is about the haute couture designer. For the fashion label, see Vionnet Madeleine Vionnet was a French fashion designer...
, Worth, Moulin Rouge
Moulin Rouge
Moulin Rouge is a cabaret built in 1889 by Joseph Oller, who also owned the Paris Olympia. Close to Montmartre in the Paris district of Pigalle on Boulevard de Clichy in the 18th arrondissement, it is marked by the red windmill on its roof. The closest métro station is Blanche.The Moulin Rouge is...
, and Devambez themselves.
The illustrators included Gus Bofa (Madeleine Vionnet), Lucien Boucher (Au Printemps), Raoul Dufy
Raoul Dufy
Raoul Dufy[p] was a French Fauvist painter. He developed a colorful, decorative style that became fashionable for designs of ceramics and textiles, as well as decorative schemes for public buildings. He is noted for scenes of open-air social events...
(La Baule), Charles Martin (Simon), Sem (Maxim's), and Roger de Valerio (Devambez). Despite the beauty and artistic success of the list edited by Chimot for Les Éditions d’Art Devambez, Pan was probably Devambez’ finest hour.
Devambez
Today, La Maison Devambez is undergoing a renaissance. Building on the rich legacy of the past, Devambez is once again focused on producing stationery and printed items of the highest quality -handmade paper and books that are works of art in themselves. By putting quality before every other concern, Devambez aims to revive and extend a tradition of craftsmanship and attention to detail that has been all but lost in the modern world.Alongside exquisite leather goods and luxury gifts, Devambez remains devoted above all to beautiful paper, to the art of printing, and to the printing of art.
Sources
- Anon. "The Work of The Maison Devambez", Commercial Art Magazine, May 1928
- Guillaume Apollinaire, Apollinaire on Art: Essays and Reviews 1902-1918 (MFA Publications, 2001)
- Janine Bailly-Herzberg, L’Estampe en France 1830-1950 (Arts et Métiers Graphiques, 1985)
- E. Bénézit, Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs (Gründ, 14 vols, 1999)
- J.-L. Bernard, Édouard Chimot 1880-1959: bibliographie des oeuvres illustrés, 1991
- Édouard Chimot, Les Éditions d’Art Devambez (Éditions d’Art Devambez, 1929)
- Colette Giraudon, Paul Guillaume et les Peintres du XXe Siècle (La Bibliothèque des Arts, 1993)
- Paul Guillaume, "A New Aesthetic", Les Arts à Paris, 15 mai 1919
- Sieglinde Lemke, Primitive Modernism: Black Culture and the Origins of Transatlantic Modernism (Oxford University Press, 1998)
- Luc Monod, Manuel de l’Amateur de Livres Illustrés Modernes 1875-1975 (Ides et Calendes, 1992)
- Pierre Mornand, Trente Artistes du Livre (Éditions Marval, 1945)
- Pierre Mornand, Vingt-Deux Artistes du Livre (Courier Graphique, 1948)
- Pierre Mornand, Vingt Artistes du Livre (Courier Graphique, 1950)
- Marcus Osterwalder, Dictionnaire des Illustrateurs, 1800-1965 (Ides et Calendes, 3 vols, 2000)
- Maurice Rat, Édouard Chimot (Henri Babou, 1931)
- W. J. Strachan, The Artist and the Book in France (Peter Owen, 1969)
- Martin Wolpert & Jeffrey Winter, Figurative Paintings: Paris and the Modern Spirit (Schiffer, 2006)
External links
- Devambez Website link
- Devambez Twitter link
- Devambez Flickr link
- Goyard book website
- Neil Philip's page on Chimot and Devambez from Adventures in the Print Trade
- Neil Philip - Rise and fall of Edouard Chimot
- Monsieur de Bougrelon - feature
- Artcyclopedia: André Devambez
- Musée d'Orsay commentary on The Charge by André Devambez
- Feature on André Devambez