The Rival of Painting: The Lithographs of Albert Belleroche
San Diego Museum of Art
February 24 - May 27, 2001
As part of the San Diego Museum of Art's 75th anniversary celebration, a special exhibition of lithographs by turn-of-the-century French printmaker Albert Belleroche (1864-1944) will showcase some never before exhibited works from the Museum's extensive holdings of this master printmaker's art. Heralded by both his contemporary critics and modern art historians, Albert Belleroche's experimental work was at the forefront of the renaissance of lithography, which began to emerge as an independent art form during the artist's lifetime.
Steven Kern, the Museum's curator of European art, has selected forty examples from the 129 Belleroche lithographs owned by the Museum for The Rival of Painting. "The variety of works chosen for the exhibition reveal the entire scope of Albert Belleroche's experimental approach to the medium of lithography. These prints document the process of lithography's transformation from a predominantly commercial medium, to one of self expression in the hands of one of its most innovative practitioners" explains Don Bacigalupi, the Museum's executive director.
Albert Belleroche lithographs: The Collection
With the exception of only two works, all of the Belleroche lithographs in the Museum's holdings were acquired through the generous donations of museum trustee George C. Kenney II, his wife Olga Kitsakos-Kenney, and their daughter Elizabeth. The Kenneys are among a generation of younger collectors and supporters of the Museum and, at twelve years of age, Elizabeth is the youngest donor of a work of art to the collection on record. All nine lithographs recently donated by Elizabeth will form part of the exhibition.
According to Bacigalupi, "The Kenneys are to be commended for making such a remarkable portion of their personal art collection accessible to the community through their generous and continuing donations to our institution. The Museum is now the largest repository of Belleroche's art in North America, rivaling such esteemed collections as those of the Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique in Brussels, the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, and the British Museum in London."
San Diego residents, the Kenneys are active art collectors, with a special interest in European art. They have donated works of art to museums and art galleries throughout the country. In addition to the Belleroche lithographs, the Kenneys have also given the Museum two paintings by Belleroche, nine etchings by Rembrandt's student Ferdinand Bol as well as many other works on paper by old master and 20th century artists.
Albert Belleroche and the Parisian Art World
Albert Belleroche was born in Swansea, Wales in 1864 to a family of French aristocrats who had fled the persecution of Hugeunot Protestants by the French crown in the late 17th century. Wealthy and international, having spent most of his childhood in Paris, Belleroche was able to focus on his own artistic exploration throughout his lifetime, particularly in lithography, without the hindrance of commercial interest or the desire or need for critical acclaim.
Beginning his artistic career in Paris in 1882, Albert Belleroche was well acquainted with the leading figures and trends in the fin-de-siècle art world. He first studied briefly with that city's premier portrait painter, Carolus-Duran, and subsequently grew friendly with Duran's former star pupil, American expatriate John Singer Sargent (who is featured in the concurrently running exhibition, American Impressionists Abroad and at Home). The two of them traveled together and shared studios.
During that same period, Albert Belleroche encountered fellow aristocrat Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who was born the same year as Belleroche. The two of them shared a passion for drawing as well as for the models that inspired them. Lili, for example, was made famous by Lautrec, though she posed more frequently with Belleroche, and she and Belleroche eventually became lovers.
Albert Belleroche and his Critics
Although he first trained and worked as a painter, it was as a lithographer that Belleroche excelled. His work in lithography was recognized by both his fellow artists and by critics, this in spite of Belleroche's lack of pursuit of critical acclaim. "Belleroche holds a premiere position in the current renaissance of lithography," wrote Claude Roger-Marx in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts in 1908. Roger-Marx, the great turn-of-the-century French critic who had previously championed the Impressionists, continued in his article, "No one... has equaled Belleroche's technique or his understanding of lithography."
Frank Brangwyn, fellow artist and friend of Belleroche, wrote in 1935, "As a lithographic artist, [Belleroche] stands alone. No modern can touch him either in his knowledge or in the quality to be got out of the stone. No one else has succeeded in making lithography the rival of painting."
And finally, a year before Albert Belleroche's death in 1944, noted art historian and print expert at the British Museum, Arthur Hind, provided this assessment of the printmaker's career: "In sensitive draughtsmanship, in variety of handling and in understanding of the possibilities of the medium, his work in lithography is among the greatest achievements [of the medium] since its discovery."
Albert Belleroche and Lithography
Lithography was in fact "discovered" or rather invented in 1796. The technique is based on the principle that oil and water repel one another and consists of printing an image drawn on the surface of a specially prepared stone surface with a greasy material. Because of its durability as a print medium-unlike in etching or engraving where the metal plates wear causing the image quality to degrade-huge editions of prints were possible, making lithography well suited to the world of commerce and industry. Consequently, its artistic application focused at first on the reproduction of paintings and drawings as illustrations for journals and other publications, with the actual printing carried out by trained technicians in commercial studios.
Albert Belleroche was at the forefront of the renaissance of lithography, when artists began to stretch the medium beyond the limits of creativity and technical production as defined by commerce. He drew and brushed directly on the stone, making full use of its grain and finish, varying strokes and touches to maximize effects of tone and modeling. He pulled his own impressions from his own press, sometimes a unique image, other times in editions as small as only two or three. He experimented with different inks and colors, sometimes grinding his own pigments. An avid collector of antique paper stock, he varied effect with sheets of different tones and weights.
With involvement in every stage of the creation of his art, Albert Belleroche challenged the traditional definition of a lithograph and its relation to the other arts. Belleroche, with his lithographs, did indeed rival painting and the selection of forty of his works in this exhibition represent the breadth of Belleroche's technique.
EXHIBITION CURATOR
Steven Kern, the Museum's curator of European art, is the exhibition's curator. Since joining the San Diego Museum of Art in 1997, Kern has overseen new thematic reinstallations of the Museum's permanent collection of old master paintings and of late 19th century European art. He has also coordinated the local presentations of major touring exhibitions including Monet: The Late Paintings of Giverny (1998) and Palace of Gold and Light: Treasures from the Topkapi, Istanbul (2000).
Prior to his arrival at SDMA, Kern was curator of paintings for nearly nine years at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA. Prior to that position, he was curator of European art and exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts and George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum in Springfield, MA. Kern holds a Master's degree in the History of Art from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and bachelors degrees in French Language and Literature and Art History from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
PUBLICATION
A full color, fully illustrated catalogue, published by the San Diego Museum of Art, accompanies the exhibition. The catalogue includes an introductory essay by exhibition curator Steven Kern, which discusses Albert Belleroche's experimental work within the context of the fin-de-siècle art world and the history of lithography. 64 pages, 40 color plates, 6 color illustrations, 9 x 12 inches. Softcover $25.00.
SAN DIEGO MUSEUM OF ART
1450 El Prado, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA
