Paul Cesar Helleu: The Elegance Of Female Portraits
Known for immortalising beautiful women in paint and graphite, Paul Cesar Helleu was the darling of fashionable, aristocratic ladies in Paris, including Coco Chanel. In fact, it was Helleu who advised Coco to adopt beige as her signature colour.
His work epitomised the charm and elegance of French culture at the time and he became one of the most celebrated artists of the Edwardian era.
Paul Cesar Helleu’s Early Life
Paul Cesar Helleu was born into a bourgeois, but not wealthy, family in Vannes, Brittany in 1859. His father died in his teens and he left home and moved to Paris soon after. At the young age of sixteen, he was accepted to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts where he studied under Jean-Leon Gerome.
It was during this same year that he was introduced to John Singer Sargent, Whistler and Monet whilst attending the Second Impressionist Exhibition.
Helleu soon made friends with the greatest influencers of his career, and it was Sargent who was the very first person to buy one of his paintings, and he did so for a vast sum of money.
He made an impression on the artists in Paris, including Rodin and Tissot, so he applied and was accepted to be a part of the Impressionist Group.
Paul César Helleu worked as a painter and an engraver in France at the turn of the Century. His work epitomises the charm and elegance of French culture at the time – the belle Époque. He gained renown for his portraits of society ladies on commission, but a true graceful sensitivity arises out of his portraits of his wife, Alice. He met Alice Guerin when she was only fourteen, and obeyed her parents’ wishes to wait for her to turn 16 to get married and live at home two years after that. Paul Cesar Helleu soon began to establish himself as a portraitist to the fashionable bourgeois women. In 1884 he was commissioned to paint a beautiful girl that would later become his wife, Alice Guerin. Alice introduced Helleu to the circles of wealthy high-society women that would ensure the prosperity of his paintings. In addition to his portraits in oils, Helleu made a very large number of quick sketches of women in pastel and charcoal.
Although this drawing was clearly composed rapidly, Helleu has taken careful care in depicting the sitter’s fashionable dress- her fur hat with jaunty feather; her fur cuffs; fashionable collared skirt suit; and dainty shoes. Additionally, he has delicately rendered her up to date makeup and hairstyle by judicious application of colour. Paul César Helleu has created an exquisite drawing of a society lady at rest on her ornate settee; his trademark.
Though he moved to Paris when he was a young man, Helleu was born in Vannes in 1859. His first job was painting on ceramics. He later became a pupil of Jean Leon Gérome at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts and befriended fellow student John Singer Sargent. Gérome was to buy his first painting.
The Second Impressionist Exhibition of 1876 profoundly impacted Helleu and Sargent. It went so far that Helleu applied to the group and was accepted as one of them. However in 1886 when he was invited to the eighth exhibition, he was advised not to exhibit by his friend, Impressionist Claude Monet.
Helleu earned a living that enabled him to enjoy yachts and sailing – a pleasure he inherited from his father, a naval officer. He mixed with English and French society at Deauville and Cowes which served to increase his popularity. His wife enjoyed entertaining on their boat L’Etoile and Helleu painted many canvasses of life on board and other harbour scenes.
Portrait of a Young Woman has been inscribed ‘ To Alice’. Perhaps what makes him all the more appealing to the modern viewer is that, despite his time spent immortalising young women, he was not a cad; throughout their lives together, his favourite model was his wife.
In this elegant portrait by Paul Cesar Helleu, a young woman stares softly at the viewer, lightly meeting their gaze. The gentleness of the portrait is reflected in the loose gestural draughtsmanship of Helleu. This looseness and ease of depiction suggest that the work was finished in situ, rather than through a series of studies, which is how Helleu preferred to work. The appearance of a chair in the lower right hand corner suggests an informal setting, and implies that the artist was well-acquainted with the sitter. A further softness is brought to the work by the use of chalk and by the harmony of three main colours; green, yellow and peach. Furthermore, the use of peach on the sitter’s blushing cheeks and lips combined with her bright blue eyes give her an angelic look.
Helleu immortalised many beautiful women in paint and graphite because he became the darling of fashionable, aristocratic ladies at the time (including Coco Chanel). Perhaps what makes him all the more appealing to the modern viewer is that, despite this, he was not a cad; throughout their lives together, his favourite model was his wife.
Paul César Helleu worked as a painter and an engraver in France at the turn of the century. His work epitomises the charm and elegance of French culture at the time – the belle époque – with all its verve and focus on fashion. Whilst he was renowned for his portraits of society ladies on commission, and those of his childhood sweetheart who later became his wife (Alice Guerin), this sitter is his eldest daughter Ellen, born in 1887. Therefore date of this work is probably between 1905 and 1910.
His Later Years
Paul Cesar Helleu became so established in London and Paris during the Edwardian era that he was able to afford a rich lifestyle, sailing yachts and mixing with English and French society at Deauville and Cowes. He and his wife owned a boat, L’Etoile, from where he painted many harbour scenes. In 1904 he was awarded the Legion of d’honneur by the French Government and in 1912 completed the astrological ceiling of the Grand Central Terminal in New York City.
