Paul César HELLEU
(1859 Vannes – 1927 Paris)
Portrait of Queen Alexandra - c.1900
Drypoint. Signed and numbered in pencil.
Size of sheet: 61.8 x 40.2 cm
Montesquieu7.
Provenance: From the Collection of Hugo Vickers (b.1951).
Very fine impression with full margins. Several faint fox marks, otherwise in good condition.
Comparison impression: Royal Collection Trust - RCIN 606306.
Paul César Helleu: Portrait of Queen Alexandra
Paul Cesar Helleu was one of the leading artists of the Belle Époque with his elegant portraits of beautiful women. Throughout his long career, Helleu enjoyed a wide circle of friends from John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini in his youthful days, to Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and Jacques-Émile Blanche in his more mature years. He counted many foreign artists among his friends: James Tissot, Walter Sickert, James McNeill Whistler, Alfred Stevens and many others.
Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac, his greatest patron and author of a book about him, described Helleu as “notre subtil ami, le maitre des élégances” (our subtle friend, master of elegancies).