The Side Table, By Henri Mondor (1885–1962)

Graphite pencil, view size 26.7 x 18.7 cm

Henri Mondor was first and foremost a brilliant surgeon and the author of Urgent Diagnoses of the Abdomen (1928), which remained a standard reference work until the 1980s. The Créteil Hospital and a square near the Paris School of Medicine are named after him. Henri Mondor later developed a passion for literature, particularly the poems of Stéphane Mallarmé. Alongside Paul Claudel and André Maurois, he served on the editorial board of the art and history journal L’Échauguette. Finally, Henri Mondor was a talented artist. He illustrated works by Georges Duhamel and Paul Valéry (L’Homme et la Coquille), among others. His favorite subjects were roses and seashells. His many talents led to his election to four academies: the Academy of Surgery (1926), the National Academy of Medicine (1945), the Académie Française (1946), and the Academy of Sciences (1961).

The drawing presented here attests to Henri Mondor’s extraordinary mastery of the art of drawing. It is extremely precise: one can make out, reflected in the glass goblet, the surrounding decor and the artist himself! The reflections of objects on the surface of the pedestal table are also remarkably rendered. Finally, the rendering of textures—the grainy ceramic, the glossy wood, the book’s matte cover, and so on—is particularly successful. Tiny details, such as the slight curve at the corners of the book’s cover, attest to the artist’s keen sense of observation. The richness of this drawing is all the more remarkable given that it is achieved solely through the interplay of light and shadow using graphite pencil.