The Online Hermann-Paul Project

Description: The artist needs assistance to remove soap from his hair. This drawing was featured on the cover of l'Escarmouche in December 1893

Description: This is a preparatory drawing used in the creation of a graphic lithograph. Ink, wash, watercolor, graphite, and gouache.

Description: This water color features a heavy-set woman about to pose for a photographer. The piece probably dates to the mid 1890s. He appears to have a Rochester Optical New Model Camera which was in production throughout the 1890s. Her swimsuit is typical of the early to mid-1890s style. Courtesy of FC Fine Art

Description: Jean de La Fontaine was a 17th century fabulist and poet. His Fables remain in print to this day. Hermann-Paul illustrated the 1897 printing. While we may address these jackasses with "Your Honor", it is the postion - not the person - that is due respect...

Description: Protectorates are autonomous territories defended by a more powerful states. In the late 19th Century, France used this legal mechanism to advance colonial ambitions. Critics such as Hermann-Paul readily exposed hypocrisies between policy and rhetoric.

Description: The interior of this home is richly decorated.

Description: In the eyes of the French political left, colonial expansion was a brutish affair. France lost its soul and indigenous their lives.

Description: Hermann-Paul sketched the playwright Alfred Jarry a year after he achieve fame with Ubu Roi. The premeire was attended by traditionalists and avant garde in equal numbers. The main character's very first word touched off a storm among the former. "Shit!" He intoned. Around the time of this drawing, Jarry attended a literary dinner. He got drunk and took exception with the Belgian poet Christian Beck. Jarry pulled a pistol and fired at him. He died in 1907 of too much tuberculosis, drugs and alcohol. His final request was for a toothpick.

Description: Another illustration Jean de La Fontaine's Fables.

Description: After Emil Zola published J'Accuse in defense of Dreyfus, he was immediately charged with defamation. The rightwing press savaged both Zola and his deceased father. The leftwing press arose in his defense. Accusations went back and forth. In this illustration, readers carefully consider the latest charges.