Paul Helleu

In my quest to reaquaint myself with my much neglected drawing skills, I've been going through my old visual reference folders for inspiration and found these great drawings by French 19th century super-virtuoso draftsman Paul Helleu.

The beautiful model with the long hair he often draws is his wife, Alice Guérin. (Lucky guy! They met when he was commissioned to paint her portrait by her well-to-do family...) He was friends with fellow Belle Époque super-virtuoso bourgeois portraitists Giovanni Boldini and John Singer Sargent. Marcel Proust's artist character Elstir, from À la recherche du temps perdu, was based in part on his life and work. Léon Daudet, aptly commenting on how close his technique and sensitivity was to Antoine Watteau's, couldn't resist a steam-age pun:  « Helleu restitue la grâce du XVIIIe siècle, mais moderne… C’est un Watteau à vapeur. »