Maurice Leloir (1 November 1853 – 7 October 1940) was a French illustrator, watercolourist, draftsman, printmaker, writer and collector.

Biography

Leloir was the son, and pupil, of painter and watercolorist Héloïse Suzanne Colin, daughter of painter

Alexandre-Marie Colin Alexandre-Marie Colin (1798-1875) was a French painter of historical and genre subjects. Biography Colin was born in Paris in 1798. He was a pupil of Girodet and close friend of Eugène Delacroix, Achille Devéria, and others. He and Delac ...

. His brother,

Alexandre-Louis Leloir Alexandre-Louis Leloir (14 March 1843 – 28 January 1884) was a French painter specializing in genre and history paintings. Life and career Alexandre-Louis Leloir was born in Paris, France. He was born into a family with a rich artistic herita ...

was also a well known painter and illustrator. Leloir married Céline Bourdier, with whom he had a daughter, Suzanne Leloir, who married Philippe, the son of

Pauline Savari Pauline Savari (born 10 January 1859 at Viarmes; died 10 January 1907 at Auteuil), was a French novelist, dramatist, journalist, stage actress, opera singer and feminist. Personal life Savari married Louis Étienne Baudier de Royaumont (185 ...

in 1912. Leloir first exhibited his work at the

Salon des artistes français The Salon (french: Salon), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art ...

, of which he became the secretary. With many other painters, he was a member of the Crozant School in the valleys of

Creuse Creuse (; oc, Cruesa or ) is a department in central France named after the river Creuse. After Lozère, it is the second least populated department in France. It is bordered by Indre and Cher to the north, Allier and Puy-de-Dôme to the ea ...

. In 1907, he was the founding president of the Société de l'histoire du costume, and he donated the family's collection of fashion prints to the society. Around the 1890s, Leloir and his students flooded the picture book market, inspired by photographs representing accurately costumes and attitudes of the past, much appreciated by bibliophiles. He was a prolific illustrator of books, especially for children, such as the ''Richelieu'' by , of magazines and fans. In 1884,

Guy de Maupassant Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (, ; ; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author, remembered as a master of the short story form, as well as a representative of the Naturalist school, who depicted human lives, destin ...

dedicated the short story '' Idylle'' to Leloir. In 1929, Leloir traveled to Hollywood at the urging of

Douglas Fairbanks Douglas Elton Fairbanks Sr. (born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman; May 23, 1883 – December 12, 1939) was an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films including '' The Thi ...

to work on his last silent film,

The Iron Mask ''The Iron Mask'' is a 1929 American part-talkie adventure film directed by Allan Dwan. It is an adaptation of the last section of the 1847-1850 novel ''The Vicomte de Bragelonne'' by Alexandre Dumas, père, which is itself based on the French l ...

. He chronicled his experiences in his memoir ''Five Months in Hollywood with Douglas Fairbanks''. Plaque Maurice Leloir, 21 avenue Gourgaud, Paris 17

Works

One of Leloir's paintings was ''La Maison Fournaise'' (oil on wood), exhibited in the

Maison Fournaise The Maison Fournaise (; "House of Fournaise") is a restaurant and museum located on the Île des Impressionnistes, a long island in Seine river in Chatou, west of Paris. History In 1857, Alphonse Fournaise bought land in Chatou to open a boat ...

of the city of

Chatou Chatou () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. Chatou is a part of the affluent suburbs of western Paris and is on the northwest side of the Seine river about from the city's center. Hi ...

, but stolen in 1999.la maison Fournaise

Joconde Joconde is the central database created in 1975 and now available online, maintained by the French Ministry of Culture, for objects in the collections of the main French public and private museums listed as ''Musées de France'', according to ...

Ministry of Culture (France)

Publications

Bernardin de Saint-Pierre Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (also called Bernardin de St. Pierre) (19 January 1737, in Le Havre – 21 January 1814, in Éragny, Val-d'Oise) was a French writer and botanist. He is best known for his 1788 novel '' Paul et Virginie'', ...

(Illustrations by Leloir), ''Paul et Virginie'', Paris, Librairie artistique, H. Launette et Cie 1888, 29 × 28 cm, 208 p. * Alexandre Dumas (121 and 128 drawings by Maurice Leloir engraved on wood by Jules Huyot), ''Les Trois Mousquetaires'', Paris, Calmann Lévy, 1894, 30 × 21 cm, 2 volumes de 502 et 473 p. * ''Une femme de qualité au siècle passé, Paris, 1778'', Paris: J. Boussod, Manzi, Joyant et Cie, 1899 * Alexandre Dumas (113 and 129 drawings by Maurice Leloir engraved on wood by Jules Huyot), ''La dame de Monsoreau'', Paris, Calmann Lévy, 1903, 30 × 21 cm, 2 volumes 499 and 488 p. * Gustave Toudouze (ill. Maurice Leloir)
''Le Roy soleil''
Paris, Boivin & Cie, 1904 (repr. 1908, 1917, 1931) (1st ed. 1904), 92 p., 37,2 × 30,3 cm Full blue percaline binding, first plate embossed with a polychrome decoration representing the Sun King, title embossed gold on the back. * Théodore Cahu (ill. Maurice Leloir), ''Richelieu'', Paris, Combet et Cie, 1904 (1st ed. 1901), 84 p., 37,4 × 30,5 cm Full green ivy percaline binding, first plate stamped with a polychrome decoration representing Richelieu * ''Cinq mois à Hollywood avec Douglas Fairbanks'', Paris: J. Peyronnet et Cie, 1929 * ''Histoire du costume de l'Antiquité à 1914'', t. VIII-XII, work published under the direction of Maurice Leloir, preface by

Henri Lavedan Henri Léon Emile Lavedan (9 April 1859 – 4 September 1940), French dramatist and man of letters, was born at Orléans, the son of , a well-known Catholic and liberal journalist. Lavedan contributed to various Parisian papers a series of witt ...

, Paris: Ernst, 1933-1949 * ''A Mediaeval Doublet,'' Apollo: The International Magazine of the Arts, Vol. 23, No. 135 (March 1936) pp. 157–160 * ''Dictionnaire du costume et de ses accessoires, des armes et des étoffes : des origines à nos jours'', Paris : Gründ, 1950 * ''Les confessions'' by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Maurice Leloir illustre (eaux-fortes gravées par Champollion, Teyssonieres, Milius, Ruet, etc.) une superbe édition (preface by Jules Claretie) in 2 volumes in-4° (sur vélin de luxe plus 48 vol. de grand luxe sur Japon) publiée par la librairie artistique H. Launette, in 1889; ces illustrations sont reprises dans une nouvelle édition à la librairie Jules Tallandier, ca 1925 (3 volumes in-8° reliés, series "Les chefs d'œuvre de l'esprit"). Maurice Leloir - Le Roy Soleil - Fouquet recevant le roi à Vaux.jpg,

Nicolas Fouquet Nicolas Fouquet, marquis de Belle-Île, vicomte de Melun et Vaux (27 January 1615 – 23 March 1680) was the Superintendent of Finances in France from 1653 until 1661 under King Louis XIV. He had a glittering career, and acquired enormous wealth ...

receiving the King at

Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte (English: Palace of Vaux-le-Vicomte) is a Baroque French château located in Maincy, near Melun, southeast of Paris in the Seine-et-Marne department of Île-de-France. Built between 1658 and 1661 for Nicolas Fo ...

Maurice Leloir- Le Roy Soleil - La dernière représentation de Molière.jpg,

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and worl ...

's last performance Maurice Leloir-Le Roy soleil.jpg, Premier plat du livre Maurice Leloir-Le Roy soleil-Bataille de Malplaquet.jpg,

Battle of Malplaquet The Battle of Malplaquet took place on 11 September 1709 during the War of the Spanish Succession and was fought between a French army commanded by the Duke of Villars and a Grand Alliance force under the Duke of Marlborough. In one of the blo ...

Maurice Leloir-Le Roy soleil-Louis XV béni par Louis XIV mourant.jpg, Louis XV blessed by Louis XIV dying Leloir-Huyot-Monsoreau-V.jpg, The very Christian King Henry III and his friends Leloir-Huyot-Monsoreau-121.jpg, A rider fall Leloir-Huyot-Monsoreau-248.jpg, House Leloir-Huyot-Monsoreau-52.jpg, Passage of the Seine at the ferry of Nesle. Leloir-Huyot-Monsoreau-494.jpg, Louise de Lorraine, Queen of France

References

External links

Fonds Maurice Leloir
on Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art
Bedford Fine Art Gallery: Maurice Leloir

Maurice Leloir
article de la ''Revue moderne des arts et de la vie'', Beaux-Arts, Artistes vus aux récentes Expositions, Salons divers, 30 April 1922.

* ttps://www.bedfordfineartgallery.com/maurice_leloir_shopping.html Watercolor by Maurice Leloir {{DEFAULTSORT:Leloir, Maurice French draughtsmen 19th-century French illustrators 20th-century French illustrators French children's book illustrators 19th-century French engravers 19th-century French male artists 20th-century French engravers 20th-century French male artists French art collectors 20th-century French non-fiction writers Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur Artists from Paris 1853 births 1940 deaths