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Section 1. Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec: literary inspiration

Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec were both passionate print makers, each leaving a legacy of numerous print works. Degas’ preferred technique was the monotype, with impressions pressed on paper from ink drawings on copper plates. Degas created monotype prints on a wide range of themes, including stage singers, ballet dancers, prostitutes, and nudes. Art dealer and publisher Ambroise Vollard incorporated Degas’ whorehouse monotype prints, produced mainly from 1879-1880, as illustrations for his publications of La Maison Tellier and Mimes des Courtisanes de Lucien. Vollard also reproduced Degas’ drawings of dancers and nudes to illustrate the publication Degas Dance Dessin.
Aside from his well-known posters, Toulouse-Lautrec was involved in prominent turn-of-the-century publication activity as well, and illustrated books such as Yvette Guilbert. His genius as a craftsman, his acute powers of observation and sense of humor are amply observed in the simple lines of his expression.

Section 2. Pascin, Foujita, Laurencin: illustrating

Book illustrations in freestyle or whimsical lines add a tone of intimacy and brilliance. This is well demonstrated in the irrepressibly individual character of illustrations by Pierre Laprade, Raoul Dufy, and the generation of artists who followed such as Jules Pascin, Léonard Foujita, and Marie Laurencin. Referred to as the École de Paris painters, they became the darlings of French society. Their activities expanded to decorative arts and stage set design, and they played an important role in establishing book illustration as a genre.
The approach of these artists to book illustration was highly original and reflective of their personalities. Laprade’s illustrations of French classics were done in lush lively color. Dufy’s illustrations, with their rhythmic lines, are reminiscent of musical staff notation for a symphonic poem. Pascin, Foujita, and Laurencin, who all skillfully depicted milky skinned women, did many illustrations taking advantage of the qualities of pure white paper. Foujita, in particular, embraced the illustrated book genre with the spirit of a craftsman. He worked in a variety of formats for texts from both Japan and France, his adopted homeland.

Section 3. Chagall: narrating

Marc Chagall, a Russian born Jew, was both artist and poet. With rich color and technical skill he depicted texts of secular and sacred literature and narratives of the human condition, starting with his own turbulent life history. He had a passion for creating prints, saying, ‘I feel I can put all my sorrow and joy into it.’
Chagall experienced two world wars and the Russian Revolution, and emigrated to the United States to escape Nazi persecution of Jews. He said he found solace in producing book illustrations, that the words and his painting carried him far away from the world of suffering. His illustration of Gogol’s Dead Souls, commissioned by art dealer and publisher Ambroise Vollard, was Chagall’s first. Following that, he created a succession of masterful illustrations revealing a spirited imagination, acute descriptive power, a fixation on memory, and brilliant color – all tied together by a poetic sensibility. After World War II, Chagall studied the techniques of lithography and became one of the greatest print artists and color masters of the 20th century, as well as an esteemed author of illustrated poems and texts.

Section 4. Rouault: illuminating

Section 5. Picasso, Derain, Maillol: re-visiting the classical

Twentieth century artists were highly attracted to works of classical literature. Their interest in the great ages and artists of the past encompassed not only the visual arts but also the literary arts, and the various illustrated books they produced reflected their differing cultural backgrounds.
André Derain’s commitment to classicism was strengthened through the medieval and Renaissance art canons. With vivid color, he gave new life to the inherently colorful Pantagruel, a quintessentially French book. Aristide Maillol had an affinity for the classical civilization that flourished around the Mediterranean. He made robust and earthy sculptural woodcut illustrations for Ovid’s Art of Love and other literary works of the same period. Picasso, in contrast, was obsessed with producing experimental paintings and from time to time took on book illustrations rooted in subjects related to the literature and atmosphere of his native Spain.

Section 6. Matisse, Léger, Braque: unlocking space

The illustrations of Matisse, Léger, and Braque were the kind that appeared liberally in the pages of illustrated books, richly and infinitely stimulating the imagination.
Many 20th century artists were fascinated by and produced illustrated books on the theme of the circus. Léger’s Circus is choreographed so that the reality of the stage is accompanied by the passage of time. Braque was closely associated with Picasso in their feverish experimentation with cubism. Following World War II, Braque collaborated with poets, sharing the pain of war with illustrated poetry anthologies. Birds spreading their wings across the page became a major motif, signifying flight to the heights of spirituality.
Matisse’s first book, Poems, exhibits his so-called ‘arabesque’ curved decorative lines filling the pages, highlighting the white of the paper and illuminating the written words. Following major surgery in 1941, production of illustrated books became a mainstay of Matisse’s activity. For Jazz, Matisse freely composed a harmonious space with a paper cutting technique, combining handwritten monochrome text with strong colored images.

Section 7. Miró: spindling the universe

Joan Miró was both a painter and a poet, and he did illustrations for over 60 publications by such writers as playwright Alfred Jarry, or his lifelong friend Surrealist poet Paul Éluard. Miró had been interested in poetry from the time he had been in Barcelona as a student of painting. He became deeply involved with poets in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. Images generated by words were a continual source of inspiration for Miró who had stated that he made no distinction between painting and poetry.
Miró used a number of techniques, employing copperplate to express delicate line, woodblock for its ability to render bright color, and lithograph for producing painterly strokes. For Miró, words and images interact as if in repeated trial and error, inter-twining in the microcosm of a book.

Section 8. Dalí: creating a universe

Salvador Dalí, like Miró, interacted significantly with Surrealist poets and was involved in the publication of a number of literary works. In addition to his paintings, Dalí authored his autobiography and many treatises on art theory. Strongly attracted to geometry and physics, ancient mysticism and the world of the Old Testament, he wrote and illustrated highly innovative publications.
Dalí’s Alchemy of the Philosophers is a two volume set housed in a large book shaped box containing also 10 prints of Dalí drawings, ancient texts from eastern and western traditions, and a facsimile of a document by Isaac Newton. Alchemy, in ancient times, was thought to be a technique to produce precious metals and ultimately unravel the mysteries of the universe. Dalí, making his own interpretation of traditional iconography related to the creation of the world, transforms such motifs to create a new world of representation.