Paul-emile Colin (1867-1949): Paris, The Tank Tops

Paul-Emile COLIN (1867 - 1949) Paris, The longshoremen Wood engraving with penknife, two colors Size: 17 x 11 cm N ° 35/50 Signed on the lower right Framed Exhibition: Paul-Emile COLIN, Painter and Engraver, to Art Gallery in Seine, Le Havre from September 19 to October 19, 2019 Paul-Émile COLIN was born in Luneville on August 16, 1867. Practicing drawing from an early age, he studied at Nancy High School, where Ernest CHARBONNIER taught him this art for the professorship. However a strong myopia distances him from the workshops and he turns towards the medicine. But this profession - which he will definitively abandon in 1901 - does not keep him away from drawing. A friend of Charles FILIGER, he joined GAUGUIN in Pont-Aven in the summer of 1890 and took his advice directly: one day in August, during a walk, while Paul-Émile COLIN drew a little, GAUGUIN took him the pencil of the hands and in the manner of lesson, drew with ardor the same tree and gave it to him. Marked by the woods of VALLOTON and RIVIERE, he executed his first engraving in 1893 and developed engraving with the knife on end wood (and not on wood of yarn, as usual). The same year, he executed his sequel to the Seven Deadly Sins. His works from 1890 to 1900 are nourished innovations of the school of Pont-Aven and Nabis, both in the theme (sometimes religious, mythological or historical) and treatment (cloisonnist). He moved to Lagny (Seine-et-Mame) from 1894 to 1911, where he practices medicine. He exhibited at the publisher SAGOT in 1902, at the gallery Georges PETIT from 1905, and the book publisher PELLETAN ordered many illustrations for his books: The Philippede Jules RENARD in 1907, The Earth and the man of Anatole FRANCE in 1912, The works and the days of HESIODE the same year, or The Hill Inspired by Maurice BARRES a year later. Attached to his native region, which he will frequent until the end of his life, he draws and engraves his many aspects, his men working the land, his landscapes and his villages. He created the suite of Lorraine Loggers in 1911. He illustrates in 1914 Ten Aspects of the Lorrainede Maurice Barres. In 1937 in the book In Lorraine by trails and veneIles, he wrote "Outside Luneville where I was born and Nancy where I lived twenty years, two Lorraine countries are particularly dear to me. It is Bisping, my father's country, and Einville-au-jard, where my mother lived until her marriage. During all the holidays of my childhood and my adolescence, I felt with joy and gratitude their powerful imprint. It is on these memories of youth that I built my life. His engraving qualities and his technical innovation are quickly recognized: in 1912, CLEMENT-JANIN established the repertoire of his engravings; his work is acquired by the Library of Art and Archeology (Jacques Doucet Foundation) and the National Library. Founding member of the Society of the Original Woodcutting in 1911, he was elected vice-president from 1920 to 1935. During the Great War, he joined as an auxiliary physician. He is then charged by the Ministry of the Armed Forces to draw with the troops engaged. After the conflict, he illustrated many works (including Jean Yole, The Demarcated, Anatole France, On the white stone, Georges DUHAMEL, The stone of Horeb), continues his activity of engraver and paints more, moving towards a more classic style. He visited 1920 in the late 30s, Italy and Sicily, Spain and the Balearic Islands, Morocco, Portugal, a source of inspiration for his new approach to color. Paul-Émile COLIN died on October 28, 1949 in his house in Bourg-la-Reine.