Albert de Belleroche | Drawn to Beauty

Albert de Belleroche, Boxers. Lithograph

Albert de Belleroche, Interieur la Boisseiere. Lithograph

While beauty is a central interest to Albert de Belleroche, in many ways he took a non-traditional approach to depicting beauty. He found beauty in posed portraits and nudes, naturally, but also in people at work, in a fight, or at rest. He drew unassuming scenes of forests and of sawmills. He was interested in immediate and imperfect forms of beauty, human beauty beyond the idealized human form. Because Belleroche wasn’t restricted to creating portraits only of patrons through paid commissions, he was free to make works of his friends and family, of performers and people in the arts community. He captured them playing the piano, dancing, and fixing their hair

Albert de Belleroche, Invitation. Lithograph

Belleroche’s works showcase his talent for and understanding of conventional drawing, perspectives, poses, and the teachings of art institutions of the time. But he was partial to spontaneity, to a loose, relaxed, and painterly style. Sometimes barely suggesting a background, sometimes filling the space with heavy, messy black ink. He mastered the fragile balance between tradition and creativity, treating each litho stone, each person, and each moment as completely unique. Through his eyes and hand, we see the coexistence of many forms of beauty from the street to the studio.

Albert de Belleroche, Unidentified Sitter. Lithograph

Albert de Belleroche (1864-1944) was born at Swansea, Wales in 1864 and raised in France as the son of the Marquis de Belleroche, of French nobility. He studied in the studio of Carolus-Duran where he met many important painters and intellectuals, later becoming a founding member of the Salon d’Automne. Belleroche and Toulouse-Lautrec met at 18 and shared life models over the years. Belleroche also became lifelong friends with and shared studios with John Singer Sargent. Between 1905 and 1910, Belleroche spent his summers in Chateaudun, southwest of Paris on the Loire River, also traveling to Thornham, his mother’s home in Scotland. In 1910, Belleroche was married to Julie Emilie Visseaux and they had three children together. Belleroche continued painting and working with lithography until his death in 1944.

Belleroche had a a joint exhibition of lithographs with Frank Brangwyn at the Worthing Art Gallery in Sussex in 1934 and a major retrospective at the Salon d’Automne in 1947. Major exhibitions of his lithographs were held at Galeries Henry Graves in Paris and Goupil Gallery in London. His lithographs were reprinted in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, L’Art et les Artistes, Revue de l’Art ancien et moderne, Connoisseur, Figaro, Die Bilden de Kunst, The Neolith and other publications and revues.

Contact us.

Please join us to view these newly added works at our new gallery, 85 Yesler Way, on Thursday October 3rd from 6 - 8pm or online at davidsongalleries.com.