for the French anti-Semite see Jules Guérin

Jules Guérin

Jules Guérin was the founder and leader of the French Ligue Antisemitique, an organisation similar to the Ligue des Patriotes. The Ligue was involved in many anti-semitic and anti-Dreyfus protests during the Dreyfus Affair. Guérin was indicted, with Déroulède and his Ligue de Patriotes for...

Jules Guérin (November 18, 1866 – June 14, 1946), American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 mural

Mural

A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A particularly distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.-History:Murals of...

ist, architectural delineator and illustrator

Illustrator

An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...

.

Biography

Jules Vallée Guérin was born in St Louis, Missouri

Missouri

Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

 on November 18, 1866 and moved to Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 to study art in 1880. In 1889 he is known to have shared a studio with Winsor McCay

Winsor McCay

Winsor McCay was an American cartoonist and animator.A prolific artist, McCay's pioneering early animated films far outshone the work of his contemporaries, and set a standard followed by Walt Disney and others in later decades...

, the noted cartoonist. They influenced each other in their use of daring points of view. In 1893 Guerin made a painting of one of the buildings at the Chicago World's Fair

Chicago World's Fair

Chicago World's Fair may refer to:*World's Columbian Exposition of 1893*Century of Progress Exposition of 1933...

. His only confirmed art instruction occurred in Chicago, though biographies claim that he studied in Paris. Though of French Huguenot descent, he is not likely to have spoken French fluently as a child. Nothing in his style or method indicates a Beaux Arts

Beaux arts

Beaux Arts, Beaux arts, or Beaux-Arts may refer to:* Académie des Beaux-Arts, a French arts institution * Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts, a Belgian arts school* Beaux-Arts architecture, an architectural style...

 education.

In 1900 he established a studio in New York, where he made his name as an architectural delineator and illustrator. His first major break occurred when he was hired by Charles Follen McKim

Charles Follen McKim

Charles Follen McKim FAIA was an American Beaux-Arts architect of the late 19th century. Along with Stanford White, he provided the architectural expertise as a member of the partnership McKim, Mead, and White....

 to create some illustrations for the Senate Parks Commission (McMillan Plan

McMillan Plan

The McMillan Plan was an architectural plan for the development of Washington, D.C., formulated in 1902 by the Senate Park Improvement Commission of the District of Columbia which had been formed by Congress the previous year.-United States Park Commission:...

) for Washington. These were exhibited and published in 1902. Architects began hiring Guérin to make similar, dramatic renderings of their buildings. He worked mainly in watercolor, gouache, and tempera, usually on colored board. His fame as a colorist soon spread, and he took on more work as a magazine illustrator and sold lithographs. Guérin was a frequent contributor to Scribner's Magazine

Scribner's Magazine

Scribner's Magazine was an American periodical published by the publishing house of Charles Scribner's Sons from January 1887 to May 1939. Scribner's Magazine was the second magazine out of the "Scribner's" firm, after the publication of Scribner's Monthly...

 and Century Magazine during the first decade of the Twentieth Century.

As a result of his success in the Washington plan Daniel Burnham

Daniel Burnham

Daniel Hudson Burnham, FAIA was an American architect and urban planner. He was the Director of Works for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He took a leading role in the creation of master plans for the development of a number of cities, including Chicago and downtown Washington DC...

 and Edward Bennett hired Guérin to make perspective illustrations for their monumental work, The Plan of Chicago in 1907. The spectacular color views of the proposed city, many from a bird's eye perspective, are his most famous works. The majority of these original renderings—by Guérin and other artists—are in the collection of the Department of Architecture at The Art Institute of Chicago

Art Institute of Chicago

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...

, while others are currently owned by the Chicago Historical Society.

In 1912, when the architect Henry Bacon

Henry Bacon

Henry Bacon was an American Beaux-Arts architect who is best remembered for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. , which was his final project.- Education and early career :...

 was competing with John Russell Pope

John Russell Pope

John Russell Pope was an architect most known for his designs of the National Archives and Records Administration building , the Jefferson Memorial and the West Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.-Biography:Pope was born in New York in 1874, the son of a successful...

 to win the commission for the Lincoln Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial is an American memorial built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The architect was Henry Bacon, the sculptor of the main statue was Daniel Chester French, and the painter of the interior...

 in Washington D.C., he hired Guérin to create renderings of alternative designs. The paintings, still in the National Archives, were likely influential in Bacon's triumph. After he received the commission, Bacon retained Guerin to paint two large murals, Reunion and Emancipation, that decorate the cella of the memorial above the Gettysburg and Second Inaugural Addresses. They were recently cleaned, revealing a subtle color palette that complements Daniel Chester French

Daniel Chester French

Daniel Chester French was an American sculptor. His best-known work is the sculpture of a seated Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.-Life and career:...

’s Seated Lincoln statue.

As an adjunct to his work as an illustrator, Guérin took an active part in the international expositions of his day, showing at the Pan American Expo in Buffalo, New York

Buffalo, New York

Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...

, 1901, the Louisiana Purchase Expo held in St Louis in 1904 at which he won a silver medal, and the Lewis & Clark Expo in Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

 in 1905. He published illustrations of these fairs in popular magazines of the day. In 1915, Guérin was asked by Edward Bennett to serve as Director of Color at the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. Unlike previous fairs, this west coast effort used a palette of Mediterranean colors to accent the buildings to take advantage of the local climate and flora. It is likely that connections that he made there led to his one man show at the University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

 two years later, followed by several large murals in the Federal reserve Bank in San Francisco.

Probably because of his early Chicago based background, Guérin was a frequent collaborator with the Chicago architectural firm (and the successor firm to Daniel Burnham’s practice) Graham, Anderson, Probst & White

Graham, Anderson, Probst & White

Graham, Anderson, Probst & White is a Chicago architecture firm that was founded in 1912 originally as Graham, Burnham & Co. This firm was the successor to D. H. Burnham & Co. by Daniel Burnham's surviving partner Ernest Graham and Burnham's sons Hubert Burnham and Daniel Burnham Jr...

. Most notable of these commissions was the dramatic fire curtain for the theatre in GAPW's Chicago Civic Opera Building in 1929.

Guérin's work as a book illustrator came as a result of magazine commissions. Articles in The Century by Maria Hornor Lansdale resulted in her 1906 travel book, The Chateaux of Touraine, which supplements its many photographs with Guérin's paintings. From 1909 to 1911 the painter traveled with Robert Hitchens to create similar illustrations for his popular books on Egypt, the Holy Land, and the Near East. The superb color lithography in these books, as well as two he published with Maxfield Parish, has made them highly collectible today.

Despite his wish to be regarded as a major serious artist, Jules Guérin is most highly regarded as an illustrator and architectural delineator. Indeed, he stands tall among a distinguished group of American artists who brought to life the scenes and buildings of the Progressive Era

Progressive Era

The Progressive Era in the United States was a period of social activism and political reform that flourished from the 1890s to the 1920s. One main goal of the Progressive movement was purification of government, as Progressives tried to eliminate corruption by exposing and undercutting political...

in the emerging print media of the early Twentieth Century.

Selected murals

• Pennsylvania Station, McKim, Mead & White, architects, New York City 1911
• Liberty Memorial, Harold Van Buren Magonigle, architect, Kansas City, MO 1921-35
• Lincoln Memorial, Henry Bacon, architect, Washington D.C. 1922
• Union Trust Building, Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, architects, Cleveland, OH 1924
• Cleveland Terminal Group, Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, architects, Cleveland, OH 1924
• Illinois Merchants Bank, Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, architects, Chicago IL 1924
• Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, George Kelham, architect, San Francisco, CA 1924
• Chicago Civic Opera, Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, architects, Chicago IL 1929
• Merchandise Mart, Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, architects, Chicago IL 1930
• Louisiana State Capitol Building, Solis Seiferth, architect, Baton Rouge, LA 1932

Books illustrated

Books by Robert Hichens, illustrated By Jules Guérin.

• The Fruitful Vine (1911)
• Egypt and Its Monuments (1908)
• The Holy Land (1910)
• The Near East - Dalmatia, Greece and Constantinople (1913)

Books written or illustrated with Maxfield Parrish

• The Lure of the Garden (1911)
• Water Colour Rendering-Suggestions. (n.d.)

Other books illustrated By Jules Guérin.

• The Mystery of Orcival (1901)
• Notes of Travel, Volume III, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Illustrated by Jules Guérin (1901)
• The Winger Colt of Casa Mia (1904)
• The Chateaux of Touraine (1906)
• The Syrian Shepherd's Psalm (1911)

Other works

• "Pittsburgh as Hell with the Lid Off", 1903, commissioned by Lincoln Steffens (April 6, 1866 – August 9, 1936) and noted in his autobiography

The Chicago Plan

Paintings by Jules Guérin that were part of the Burnham Plan, owned by the Chicago Historical Society:

• 1. Chicago. Bird's-Eye View at Night of Grant Park, Facade Of City, Proposed Harbor and Lagoons of Park on South Shore.
• 2. Chicago. Bird's-Eye View at Night of Grant Park, Facade Of City, Proposed Harbor and Lagoons of Park on South Shore.
• 3. Chicago. Michigan Avenue Looking Toward the South.
• 4. View Looking North on South Branch of Chicago River, Showing Suggested Arrangement of Streets.
• 5. View Looking North on South Branch of Chicago River, Showing Suggested Arrangement of Streets.
• 6. Chicago. Proposed Plaza on Michigan Avenue West of the Field Museum of Natural History in Grant Park.
• 7. Chicago. Proposed Plaza on Michigan Avenue West of the Field Museum of Natural History in Grant Park.
• 8. Chicago. Proposed Boulevard to Connect North and South Sides of the River; View Looking North from Washington Street.
• 9. Chicago. Proposed Boulevard to Connect North and South Sides of the River; View Looking North from Washington Street.
• 10. Chicago. Alternate Railway Station Scheme West of River Between Canal and Clinton Streets.
• 11. Chicago. Alternate Railway Station Scheme West of River Between Canal and Clinton Streets.