All I can send you today are these images by Leo Rauth (1884 – 1913). They feature dancers one of whom is American modern dance “pioneer” (Wikipedia), Ruth St. Denis (20 January 1879 – 21 July 1968), shown above performing a “snake dance,” without the snake. They also feature la Belle Otéro (4 November 1868 – 12 April 1965). (Wikipedia)
Leo Rauth also designed rather “poetical” clothes.
Fashion Design, Leo Rauth (Photo credit: Google images)
This may be one of my shortest posts, but I wanted to show more artworks by Rauth, who did a number of pochoirs. But more importantly, I wanted to keep in touch and send everyone my best regards.
La Valse contente (The Happy Waltz)
“Piano Album With A Smile 2”: original easy to medium pieces from Oswin Haas.
Cover by George Barbier (Photo credit: Wikimedia.org, all)
Pierrot and Harlequin by George Barbier
Art Deco
Jean-Gaspard Deburau
Charles Deburau (Jean-Gaspard’s son)
Jean-Louis Barrault
Pantomine and Mine
Les Enfants du Paradis
A few weeks ago, I posted an article on “Leo Rauth’s fin de siècle Pierrot.” Leo Rauth died too young and under tragic circumstances. However, although Rauth‘s artwork predates George Barbier‘s (1882–1932), who is considered an Art Deco artist, both artists depicted commedia dell’arte stock characters: Pedrolino, or Pierrot formerly known as Gilles, and Harlequin (Arlecchino and Arlequin) and did so in “galant” fashion following in the footsteps of Jean-Antoine Watteau (10 October 1684 – 18 July 1721).
Pierrot is a major figure in France. He appears in the art of Antoine Watteau, a student of Claude Gillot (both eighteenth-century artists, middle and late). Pierrot then grows into Jean-Gaspard Deburau‘s Battiste, a role Charles Deburau, Jean-Gaspard’s son, inherited. Pierrot had entered the world of pantomime and mime.
George Barbier: illustrator
japonisme
Printmaking
“pochoirs” (stenciling)
engravings
However, Leo Rauth differs from George Barbier. First, Barbier is considered an Art Deco artist. Second, he was a fashion illustrator at a time when haute couture was developing rapidly and the publishing industry sensed an opportunity it quickly seized. Moreover, japonisme, woodblock printing, would prove the technique of artists who needed copies of their work: posters, illustrations. Printmaking was not new to the western world. François Chauveau engraved the Carte de Tendre.
As you know, the fine arts diversified in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century due, to a large extent, to japonisme. Japanese prints flooded Europe, France and England particularly. They were plentiful and therefore an inexpensive yet beautiful artwork. Illustrators needed such a tool.
Barbier, used pochoirs (stenciling)[I]that enabled him to make replicas of his designs, but many artists chose various forms of engraving. They made etchings (on copper usually), woodcuts (wood), linocuts (linoleum) or some other material.
Engraving is referred to as an intaglio technique. For instance, etchers trace their drawing into a “ground” applied to metal, they use acid to bite into the drawing. They then insert ink that flows into the engraved (etched) parts of the metal and, when pressed onto paper, only the engraved or etched parts of the pieces of metal, the image, will show on the paper. Artists and designers can also make reproductions of their work using lithography, silkscreens (stenciling) and pochoirs (also stenciling).
Chansons de France pour les petits enfants Maurice B. de Monvel
The Boutet de Monvel Dynasty
Maurice Boutet de Monvel
his son: Bernard Boutet de Monvel
his nephews: George Barbier and Pierre Brissaud
Barbier was also a first cousin to, Bernard Boutet de Monvel, Maurice’s son as well as a first cousin to Maurice’s other nephew, Pierre Brissaud. All three were occasional designers and/or illustrators, or exclusively illustrators and designers.
Barbier also designed theatre and ballet costumes. In fact, he helped Erté, Romain de Tirtoff (23 November 1892 – 21 April 1990) design sets and costumes for the Folies Bergère. In French “R” is pronounced er and “T,” té = Erté. In fact, Barbier led a group nicknamed “The Knights of the Bracelet,” by Vogue.
The Plane Crash: 28 October 1949
Bernard was also an interior designer, a portraitist, and the last of the Paris dandies, a work of art in himself. He died as he lived, conspicuously. Bernard B. de Monvel was killed in the Air France Lockheed Constellation crash of 28 October 1949, in the Azores. Among the forty-eight victims were world-champion boxer Marcel Cerdan (aged 33), Edith Piaf‘s lover, and virtuoso violinist Ginette Neveu (aged 30). Benard B. de Monvel was 68.
Conclusion
As I was going through my neglected email, I found an advertisement for this pochoir.
“Original pochoir by Bagge Huguet from La Gazette du Bon Ton, a leading Art Deco revue in Paris in the 1920s, showcasing the latest fashion and design. The Art Deco period was a highpoint in French art. Leading artists included Georges Lepape, Georges [sic] Barbier, Edouard Garcia Benito, Erté, and others.”
But let us look at Barbier’s reading of Fêtes galantes. Les Années folles, or the Golden Twenties, were a reborn fête galante,à la Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby (1925) that dictated a degree of resemblance between Rauth and Barbier. However, people danced the Charleston, not the sensual tango a product of the 1890s.
Pierrot et Colombine by Leo Rauth, 1911 postcard (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Leo Rauth’s depictions of Pierrot are rooted in the Fêtes galantes of eighteenth-century France. He is loved by Colombine and he has a floured face. He is a smidgen decadent and his costume, flowing, not baggy. This is a sign of the times. Rauth was a fin de siècle (end of century) artist and very much an aesthete. He produced stylized and very thin figures.
A “ Fin de Siècle ” Pierrot
According to Britannica, the fin de siècle was characterized by “sophistication, escapism, extreme aestheticism, world-weariness, and fashionable despair.”[i] In other words, the “mal du siècle” had survived under such headings as “world-weariness” and “fashionable despair.” However, the Pierrot had acquired new facets. He was sophisticated and elegant. Symbolism had changed him. Leo Rauth’s Pierrot is both a sad and polished Pierrot, a “dandy,” and, perhaps, a salonnier.
Jean-Gaspard Deburau (31 July 1796 – 17 June 1846) gave Pierrot his “Janus-faced aspect.” (See Pedrolino, Wikipedia.) He made him into a sad clown. However, under his loose-fitting clothes, his impeccably starched ruff and his pompoms, Rauth’s Pierrot, formerly a zanno, a servant, had been transformed into a man-about-town, which does not preclude sadness. Rauth would bestow “fashionable despair” upon his Pierrot.
But the Pierrot is the Pierrot. We have read the scenario. His Columbina, featured at the top of this post, seems to love him. She is dancing with him. But Columbina loves the nimble Harlequin.
So, it was all a masquerade and the topsy-turvy world of the Roman Saturnalia and the Carnival season. On Shrove Tuesday, the bal masqué would end, but as depicted by Jean-Léon Gérôme (11 May 1824 – Paris, 10 January 1904), the end would not necessarily be consistent with the conventions of comedy. Gérôme’s (c. 1857-59) painting shows Pierrot wounded and perhaps dying after fighting a duel. On the right side of the painting, we see Harlequin walking away. He appears to be supporting another figure, which is confusing.
The Duel after the Masquerade by Jean-Léon Gérôme(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
An Early Death
Leo Rauth (18 July 1884 – 9 January 1913) was born in Leipzig and studied art in Karlsruhe, Berlin, Vienna, Paris and Venice. His art made him an overnight celebrity. He had obviously been influenced by Jean-Antoine Watteau (baptised 10 October 1684 – 18 July 1721) whose “best known subjects were drawn from the world of Italian comedy and ballet,” as would also be the case with Leo Rauth’s Pierrot. Watteau is also an important figure in the history of fashion. (See Watteau, Wikipedia.)
Leo Rauth died of a pistol shot at the age of 29. News of his premature death after a dizzying three-year career sent shock waves through artistic circles. He had chosen useful art and seemed destined for a brilliant career.
Rauth died, but the Pierrot survived. In 1913, Sergei Diaghilev‘s Ballets Russes were in Paris and Pierrot was on stage dancing, not far from Harlequin and Columbina. Moreover, a young Picasso was working for the Ballets Russes. Picasso would also remember the stock characters of the commedia dell’arte. However, he would choose Harlequin as a major subject matter. Could it be the cubes? We will see…
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