Drawing By Auguste Gorguet - Illustration Project

Auguste François GORGUET (Paris 1862-1927) Study for the front cover of the book 'La joie suprême' by Paul Leleu1890pen and black ink, wash, gouache and gum arabic highlights43 x 29 cmsigned 'Aug. Fr. Gorguet' lower right; inscribed 'La joie suprême - par Paul Leleu'Painter, decorator, illustrator, Auguste François Gorguet learned his trade at the Beaux-Arts, under the tutelage of Pierre-Victor Galland, Jean-Léon Gérôme and Léon Bonnat. Medal of honor at the Salon of 1889, he asserted his aptitude and his ambitions when he was not yet thirty years old. He first became known to the public and identified institutions through this sole means of exhibition. He achieved his first major success there in 1894 with The Garden of the Hesperides (see below), a work acquired by the State and now preserved at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Béziers, treated in the spirit of the great decorations of Galland and Moreau-Néret. During this period, the artist evolved towards an aesthetic and graphic style in keeping with those of the Vienna Secession. While he did not adopt its sulphurous inspiration, he nevertheless showed himself very close to Stück, Klinger and Schwabe. Alongside this success at the Salon, Auguste Gorguet asserted himself with a painting intended to cover and decorate the walls of public buildings. His monumental decorative painting took three distinct forms: painted decorations for town halls, paintings intended to be woven, and finally the panorama. In 1905, he received a commission for a ceiling for the south salon of the town hall of the 10th arrondissement of Paris. In 1907, the Gobelins factory entrusted him with the designs for a series of tapestries for the Grand Chamber of the Parliament of Rennes (The Battle of the Veneti at Vannes; Jeanne de Montfort Presenting Her Son; Entry of Henri IV into Brest). The same year, he was decorated with the Legion of Honour. His reputation as an illustrator grew from 1890. He made his way in the world of opera and the press and drew for La Revue illustrée as well as for L'Illustration. Our artist also decorated the works of the greatest playwrights and writers of the 19th century. He notably drew for the editions of Cyrano de Bergerac and La Princesse lointaine by Rostand at Lafitte in 1910, as well as Sapho by Alphonse Daudet. The drawing presented to you was probably executed for the frontispiece of the work 'La joie suprême' by Paul Leleu, published in 1890 by L. Genonceaux, in Paris. In the immensity of a clear and starry night, a young woman, inert and abandoned, is carried by an angel. Flying towards the heavens, he looks at her with tenderness and leaves behind them the sleeping city, which is most certainly Paris.