Henri Bellery-Desfontaines (20 March 1867 – 7 October 1909) was a French

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

, decorator and

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

renowned for his

poster A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both typography, textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or w ...

lithograph Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

s, tapestries,

furniture Furniture refers to movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (tables), storing items, eating and/or working with an item, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Fu ...

bank note A banknote—also called a bill (North American English), paper money, or simply a note—is a type of negotiable promissory note, made by a bank or other licensed authority, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued ...

designs,

typography Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), and ...

, and other works of decorative arts.

Career

Henri Bellery-Desfontaines was born in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. He is thought to have begun his artistic training under the tutelage of

Luc-Olivier Merson Luc-Olivier Merson (21 May 1846 – 13 November 1920) was a French academic painter and illustrator also known for his postage stamp and currency designs. Biography Born Nicolas Luc-Olivier Merson in Paris, France, he grew up in an artist ...

(1846–1920). During his years as a student, he began to illustrate magazines. In 1895, drawn to illustration, probably due to financial problems, and he started to produce work for publications such as '' Revue Illustrée'', '' L'Image'', '' L'Estampe Moderne'', and '' L'Almanach des Bibliophiles''. In the same year, 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 ...

hosted one of his

tapestry Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads may ...

designs. In the 1900s, Paris was the perfect place for a group of young artists influenced by artistic currents like neogothic style or symbolism. Most of them began as painters, switching later to decorative arts attracted by the ideas of ever-present art and total art. Henri Bellery-Desfontaines was a member of this group. He started as a painter in atelier of Pierre-Victor Galland, who entrusted him with the decorative motifs that would frame drawings of the

Panthéon de Paris The Panthéon (, from the Classical Greek word , , ' empleto all the gods') is a monument in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It stands in the Latin Quarter, atop the , in the centre of the , which was named after it. The edifice was bu ...

. Maillot, Bonnat, Humbert and notably

Jean-Paul Laurens Jean-Paul Laurens (; 28 March 1838 – 23 March 1921) was a French painter and sculptor, and one of the last major exponents of the French Academic style. Biography Laurens was born in Fourquevaux and was a pupil of Léon Cogniet and Alexa ...

convinced him to join the atelier at the

École des Beaux-Arts de Paris 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 Sciences ...

, and with him, decorated the Hôtel de Ville de Paris. Bellery-Desfontaines gradually achieved notoriety as an ambitious decorative artist, designing tapestries and furniture adorned with ornate floral and vegetal motifs for wealthy patrons. He made numerous commercial illustrations, created the joker for the playing cards company Fossorier Amar et Cie., and typography for Fonderie G. Peignot et Fils, including the typefaces Bellery-Desfontaines-large and Bellery-Desfontaines-étroit. He also was an important fine artist and printmaker of his epoch, painting portraits of

Yvette Guilbert Yvette Guilbert (; born Emma Laure Esther Guilbert, 20 January 1865 – 3 February 1944) was a French cabaret singer and actress of the ''Belle Époque''. Biography Born in Paris into a poor family as Emma Laure Esther Guilbert, Guilbert be ...

and Jean Mounet-Sully, and participating in numerous events such as the Bal des Quat'z'Arts and Bal de l'Internat. Bellery-Desfontaines died in

Saint-Martin-aux-Buneaux Saint-Martin-aux-Buneaux () is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France. Geography A coastal farming village situated in the Pays de Caux, at the junction of the D68, D71 and the D79 roads, some south ...

(Normandy) at age 42, leaving a vast production of unfinished artistic works.

External links

Bellerydesfontaines.com
official site with biography, photos, and works

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bellery-Desfontaines, Henri 1867 births 1909 deaths 19th-century French painters 19th-century French male artists French male painters 20th-century French painters 20th-century French male artists French graphic designers French illustrators French poster artists Art Nouveau painters Art Nouveau illustrators French typographers and type designers Painters from Paris 20th-century French printmakers