Théodore-Octave Girardet (22 September 1861,

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...

- 29 January 1935,

Sainte-Maxime Sainte-Maxime (; Occitan language, Occitan and Provençal dialect, Provençal: ''Santa Maxima'') is a Communes of France, commune in the Var (département), Var Departments of France, department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France ...

) was a French illustrator and

wood-engraver Wood engraving is a printmaking technique, in which an artist works an image or ''matrix'' of images into a block of wood. Functionally a variety of woodcut, it uses relief printing, where the artist applies ink to the face of the block and pr ...

Life and work

He came from a Swiss

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

family. His father,

Paul Girardet Paul Girardet (8 March 1821, Neuchâtel - 28 February 1893, Paris) was a Swiss-born French copper engraver. Life and work He came from a Swiss Huguenot family, and his father was the engraver, Charles Samuel Girardet. His brothers, Edouard Gir ...

, was a

copper engraver Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an in ...

. His brothers, Jules, Eugène, Paul Armand and

Léon Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to: Places Europe * León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León * Province of León, Spain * Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again fro ...

, as well as his sister, Julia Antonine (1851-1921), also became painters or engravers. He studied painting at the

École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts The Beaux-Arts de Paris is a French ''grande école'' whose primary mission is to provide high-level arts education and training. This is classical and historical School of Fine Arts in France. The art school, which is part of the Paris Science ...

in Paris with Alexandre Cabanel. He eventually decided to specialize in wood-engraving, and worked in the studios of . He also took some lessons from . He remained in Paris, where he specialized in wood-engravings which were used as illustrations for newspapers and magazines, such as '' Le Monde illustré'', ''

L'Illustration ''L'Illustration'' was a weekly French language, French newspaper published in Paris from 1843 to 1944. It was founded by Édouard Charton with the first issue published on 4 March 1843, it became the first illustrated newspaper in France then, a ...

'' and ''

Le Tour du Monde ''Le Tour du monde, nouveau journal des voyages'' was a French weekly travel journal first published in January 1860.Eugène Burnand Eugène Burnand (; 30 August 1850 – 4 February 1921) was a prolific Switzerland, Swiss Painting, painter and illustrator from Moudon, Switzerland. Born of prosperous parents who taught him to appreciate art and the countryside, he first trained ...

, or other family members. He was also active in the advertising industry, which was very lucrative, and exhibited at his work the

Paris Salon 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 ...

Sources

* M.Tripet: "Girardet, Théodore-Octave". In: Carl Brun (Ed.): ''Schweizerisches Künstler-Lexikon'', Vol.1: A–G. Huber & Co., Frauenfeld 1905, pg.586
Online
* "Girardet, Théodore". In: Ulrich Thieme, Fred. C. Willis (Ed.): ''Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart'', Vol.14: Giddens–Gress. E. A. Seemann, Leipzig 1921, pg.168
Online
* René Burnand: ''L’étonnante histoire des Girardet. Artistes suisses.'' La Baconnière, Neuchâtel 1940. * René Burnand: ''Les Girardet au Locle et dans le monde''. La Baconnière, Neuchâtel 1957. *

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Girardet, Theodore 1861 births 1935 deaths French artists Woodcut cutters Woodcut designers French illustrators People from Versailles