Asian Art Deco #2: Geoffrey Sneyd Garnier

Geoffrey Sneyd Garnier (1889-1970) was the son of the author Russell Garnier.  Educated at Charterhouse, Garnier studied engineering in London before going to work in Toronto as an engineer.  While in Canada, Garnier decided to become an artist, and spent time in the Yukon prospecting for gold in the hopes of being able to fund his newly-chosen career.  He returned to England in 1910 to study at the School of Painting in Bushey, Hertfordshire.  In 1913, he studied at Stanhope Forbes' School of Painting in Newlyn, Cornwall, where he fell in love with his cousin Jill Blyth.  Their courtship was interrupted by the outbreak of WWII, but Garnier married Blyth in 1917 (after being discharged from the Army for medical reasons and subsequently re-enlisting in 1916 as a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy).  After a few years spent in Birmingham when Garnier temporarily returned to the engineering profession in order to support his family, the Garniers permanently settled in Newlyn in 1922.

Photo of Geoffrey S. Garnier (c. late 1920s?)

Jill Garnier became a painter in oils and watercolors, whereas Geoffrey Garnier devoted himself primarily to etching, engraving, and aquatints.  Almost exclusively self-taught, Garnier learned intaglio printing from French manuals, from studying old prints, and from his own experiments in the field whereby he rediscovered old techniques that had been lost over time and made improvements to others that allowed him to increase print production in less time without any concomitant loss in quality.  From practically the outset, he was hailed by critics as an "etcher of outstanding ability," producing works of technical complexity that surpassed that found in the works of most other British etchers.  Equally at home with landscapes and figurative works, his favorite subjects were Cornish land and seascapes, children, and British naval ships of yore.

St. Mary's, Penzance by Geoffrey S. Garnier
(aquatint)

Between 1924 and 1931, Garnier produced 228 plates, roughly half of which were blatantly commercial works produced simply to help pay the bills.  During that period, Garnier did his own printing, cut his own mounts, and managed his own publicity.  With the advent of the Great Depression, however, Garnier, like most etchers, found it increasingly difficult to make a living from his art.  In an attempt to increase sales while simultaneously relieving himself of the pressures of marketing, Garnier signed a three-year contract with the London-based publisher and dealer Arthur Greatorex Ltd.  

  

The End of the Chase by Geoffrey S. Garnier

(aquatint)

It was Greatorex who suggested that Garnier tackle oriental subjects as a means of generating sales.  Greatorex had experienced considerable success marketing the Asian art deco prints of the American etcher Dorsey Potter Tyson, prints that recently had become prohibitively expensive for Greatorex to sell due to a fifty percent import duty levied in Great Britain.  Consequently, Greatorex was hoping to groom Garnier as a suitable replacement for Tyson.

Old Molesworthy Mill by Geoffrey S. Garnier
Courtesy of Hatfield Hines Gallery
(aquatint)

Greatorex sent Garnier books, views of Japan, and travel magazines for inspiration, as well as an etching by Tyson as an example of the type of print it was looking for.  Garnier asked for a second copy of the Tyson etching so that he could compare them and work out how they had been produced (a technique that effectively combined the printing of a normal etching simultaneously with that of printing a monotype).  To achieve the bright colors of Tyson's prints, Garnier used opaque colors that deeply impregnated a very absorbent type of Japanese paper that Garnier had specially selected for such prints.           

The Wish Bone by Geoffrey S. Garnier

(aquatint)

Greatorex was very hands on, making specific requests for changes in Garnier's proofs to which Garnier acquiesced.  Although Queen Mary acquired copies of A Song of Old Cathay and The Garden God, business overall was slow.  The only print Greatorex was selling in any quantity was The Sand Cart, Garnier's most popular print that pre-dated Garnier's association with Greatorex.  (By the 1930s, Garnier had sold nearly 3000 copies of that particular design.)  Garnier also bemoaned the fact that he would spend a week printing a batch of proofs but not be paid for them by Greatorex for a year or more.  Unable to negotiate a prompter payment schedule on financially acceptable terms, Garnier terminated his relationship with Greatorex before the end of the contract term and reverted back to self-publishing his own work.           

The Sand Cart by Geoffrey S. Garnier
(aquatint)

I have been able to catalog at least 10 Asian-themed prints by Garnier, all of which appear to have been produced circa 1931-1933.  Many of these prints employ titles and/or monograms written from top to bottom, disguised to look more like Chinese characters than Roman alphabets in an attempt to reinforce and complement the exotic Far-Eastern nature of the subjects depicted.  Garnier's debt to Tyson is palpable, especially in his prints of children and sampans.  While I am not a great fan of Tyson's work, to my eyes Garnier's prints come across as rather banal and jejune in comparison.  Garnier himself acknowledged that they were mere potboilers and thought little of them or the "blighters" who bought such "trip[e]."
  
The Little Ginger Seller was said to have been produced in an edition of one hundred, but I have found no information about print edition size for Garnier's other prints.  It is possible that they were issued with edition labels similar to those sometimes found with Tyson's prints, but that remains a speculative hypothesis until such a label actually turns up.   Collectors, however, should be aware that there are also cheap, posthumously-issued "restrike etchings" readily available today in the marketplaces.  I have not had an opportunity to view such things in person, but I suspect that they are printed on very different paper and that they are not actually etchings at all but rather lithographic reproductions.  In all known cases, they use different colors than those found in Garnier's original prints and often omit certain details altogether.

  The Little Ginger Seller by Geoffrey S. Garnier
 Size: 17.8 cm x 12.4 cm
(L: colored aquatint; R: restrike etching)

The Little Ginger Seller by Geoffrey S. Garnier

Size: 17.8 cm x 12.4 cm

(L: colored aquatint variant; R: alternate state aquatint)

A Fish from Hwant Ho by Geoffrey S. Garnier

 Size: 36.8 cm x 28.6 cm

(L: colored aquatint; R: restrike etching)

The Good Companions by Geoffrey S. Garnier
 Size: 27.3 cm x 18.8 cm

(L: colored aquatint; R: restrike etching)

China Seas by Geoffrey S. Garnier
Size: 26.5 cm x 30.3 cm
(L: colored aquatint; R: colored aquatint variant)

The Bird Charmer by Geoffrey S. Garnier
 Size: 17.8 cm x 12.4 cm
(L: colored aquatint; R: restrike etching)

Note: I have come across a reference to a Garnier print described as a girl selling finches, which probably refers to this design.

The Blue Umbrella by Geoffrey S. Garnier
 Size: 17.8 cm x 13.3 cm

(L: colored aquatint; R: restrike etching)

Night by a Tropical Sea by Geoffrey S. Garnier
 Size: 28 cm x 22 cm

(colored aquatint)

A Song of Old Cathay by Geoffrey S. Garnier
 Size: 26 cm x 18 cm

(L: colored aquatint; R: restrike etching)

The Hour of Evening Rice by Geoffrey S. Garnier
Size: 28.1 x 24.3 cm

(L: colored aquatint, courtesy of the Josef Lebovic Gallery; R: colored aquatint variant)

The Garden God by Geoffrey S. Garnier

Size: 27 cm x 19 cm

(L: colored aquatint; R: restrike etching)

The Garden God by Geoffrey S. Garnier

 Size: 27 cm x 19 cm

(colored aquatint variant)

Note: "The Garden God" is sometimes erroneously referred to by dealers as "The Golden God."  I have come across a reference to a Garnier print called "Buddha," which possibly also refers to this same design.

[Lady with Fan] by Geoffrey S. Garnier
Size: 18 cm x 13 cm

(restrike etching)

Note: At present, I have not been able to locate an image of an original colored aquatint for the above image, or any indication of what its official title might be.  Although offered for sale by a number of dealers as a restrike etching by Garnier, it is difficult to read the initials in the cartouche as being those of Geoffrey Garnier's, and so it might actually be a print in the same vein that was designed by another artist altogether.

In addition, I should add that the Bushey Museum has a plate which its records call "Japanese Water Carrier."  Whether this is an inscription on the plate or just a descriptive title for the image in the plate is not known at this time.  It is also possible that it is the actual plate for "The Little Ginger Seller" print with the cataloger confusing a ginger jar for a water jar.

Photo of Geoffrey Sneyd Garnier (c. 1936)

If anyone has any additional information about Garnier's Asian aquatints, or additional images of same to contribute to this blog, please let me know.  For more information about the life and career of Geoffrey Garnier, I recommend Geoffrey and Jill Garnier: A Marriage of the Arts by John Branfield (Sansom & Company 2010).

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Enthralled with Japan: The Prints of Henri-Charles Guérard

Henri-Charles Guérard (1846-1897) was one the most skilled printmakers of the Nineteenth Century.  He trained under Nicolas Berthon at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and his earliest etchings appeared in Paris à l'eau-forte in 1872.

Portrait of Henri Guérard at the press (1888) by Henri-Charles Guérard

Courtesy of the New York Public Library

(drypoint)

 Henri Guérard at his press (1888) by Henri-Charles Guérard

Courtesy of the New York Public Library

(etching with aquatint and roulette)

With the death in 1880 of Jules Jacquemart, Guérard replaced him as the leading reproductive print artist of the time.  Guérard also printed the etchings of other artists, such as those by Félix Buhot and his close friend Édouard Manet (whose favorite pupil, Eva Gonzalès, became Guérard's first wife).

The Boy with Soap Bubbles (1868-69) by Édouard Manet

Courtesy of the New York Public Library

(etching printed by Henri-Charles Guérard)

Title Page for the Japonisme portfolio (1885) by Félix Buhot

 Courtesy of the New York Public Library

(etching in sanguine printed by Henri-Charles Guérard)

But Guérard was more than just a professional printer; he was also an original and innovative etcher in his own right.  Guérard would experiment with different types of paper, inks, and printing effects to improve or vary his images.  In "La Rue Chevert," for example, Guérard removed small amounts of paper pulp to pockmark the sheet to transform a cityscape into a winter scene and mounted the resulting print on Japanese paper speckled with gold to enhance the effect of the snow.

  La Rue Chevert (pre-1888) by Henri-Charles Guérard

Courtesy of the New York Public Library

(etchings with aquatint)

Inspired by the efforts of August Lepère, Guérard also made tentative forays in to woodblock printing near the end of his life.  As in the contemporaneous woodblock prints of Arthur Wesley Dow, Guérard would print the same design in varying colors to reflect the time of the day or simply to project a different mood.  In "Soleil couchant, Honfleur," for example, he would add a moon printed in white ink whose light casts a reflection in the harbor water below, anticipating similar effects in the prints of Kawase Hasui and Hiroshi Yoshida over two decades later.  Guérard's prints, however, rely upon much larger areas of flat color (and overall were of much larger size) than in the prints of Dow.

Soleil couchant, Honfleur (c. 1895) by Henri-Charles Guérard

Courtesy of the New York Public Library

(left: woodcut printed in black; right: colored woodcut)

Soleil couchant, Honfleur (c. 1895) by Henri-Charles Guérard

Courtesy of the New York Public Library

(colored woodcut)

Of all the French etchers, none embraced the Japonisme movement more fervently than Guérard.   I'm not quite sure exactly when the Japanese bug bit him, but he certainly was firmly under its spell by 1883, the date that Louis Gonse published L'Art japonais.  Guérard contributed more than 200 designs of Japanese subjects to this seminal work.

Porte-bouquet et crabe (1882) by Henri-Charles Guérard

[also used in L'Art japonais (1883)]

Courtesy of the New York Public Library

(color etching with roulette)

It is also known that Guérard was well-acquainted with Philippe Burty, the French art critic, Japanese art collector, frequent contributor to Paris à l'eau-forte, and coiner of the term "Japonisme."  Burty, an enthusiastic patron of Guérard's work, was a particular champion of Hokusai, and no doubt exposed Guérard early on to Hokusai's oeuvre. 

 Philippe Burty (c. late 1880s) by Henri-Charles Guérard
Posthumously printed from an unpublished plate by A. Porcabeuf
and published in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Vol. 37 (1907)
Courtesy of Idbury Prints
(etching)

In Hokusai, Guérard found both inspiration and a shared sense of humor that was reflected in many of his mature prints.  For example, the following print of Japanese men playing a board game was directly inspired by a drawing in one of the volumes of Hokusai's Manga.  The three central figures are reversed, a not-uncommon result if a design is copied directly onto the plate.  Guérard, however, adds two flanking figures of his own while otherwise simplifying the overall design.  Although Hokusai's players appear to be playing a game of shogi, Guerard's men are using something more akin to a chess board.

Five figures seated around a board game and a fan (1882) by Henri-Charles Guérard

Courtesy of the New York Public Library

(etching)
  

Close-up of a page from the Hokusai Manga, Vol. VIII (1819) by Katsushika Hokusai

Courtesy of the British Museum

(woodblock print)

Guérard's sense of Gallic whimsy is particularly evident in his famous "Assault of the Shoe" print.  Here, Guérard appropriates Hokusai's motif of blind men attempting to scale an elephant and turns it into a fantastical comic romp with not-so-veiled erotic overtones.  (A version in yellow also exists, but the pink is particularly suggestive.)

L'Assaut du soulier (1888) by Henri-Charles Guérard

Courtesy of the New York Public Library

(color etching with roulette)

 Blind Men with an Elephant (1819)
from Hokusai Manga, Vol. VIII by Katsushika Hokusai
Courtesy of the New York Public Library
(woodblock print)

A characteristic of the Manga was Hokusai's multiple depictions on a single page of subjects (be they figures, animals, plants, or objects) sketched at various angles or in various poses.  Guérard utilize this format for a number of prints, such as in these etchings of his dog Azor and a series of possibly Manet-inspired black cats.

Azor (Hokusai Manga style) (1888) by Henri-Charles Guérard

Courtesy of the New York Public Library

(color etching)

Sept chats noirs (1888) by Henri-Charles Guérard

Courtesy of the New York Public Library

(drypoint with aquatint)

Two pages from Hokusai Manga, Vol. IX (c. 1814) by Katsushika Hokusai

Courtesy of the British Museum

(woodblock prints)

Guérard also made a number of etchings focusing on a single carved Japanese mask, as opposed to depicting an arrays of such masks as featured in the Hokusai Manga.

Masque Grotesque (pre-1888) by Henri-Charles Guérard

 Courtesy of Armstrong Fine Art

(left: cut-out etching printed in green; right: negative proof etching)

Two pages from Hokusai Manga, Vol. II (c. 1814) by Katsushika Hokusai

Courtesy of Arts and Designs of Japan

(woodblock prints)

In other cases, Japanese imagery was appropriated by Guérard simply because it was exotic or fashionably chic, adorning calendars, menus, business cards, and the like for people who traveled in the same circles as Burty, Gonse, Edmond de Goncourt, and Siegfried Bing.

Calendar (1884) by Henri-Charles Guérard

Personal Collection

(etching with drypoint) (intermediate state without dates)

Calendar (1884) by Henri-Charles Guérard

Courtesy of the New York Public Library

(etching with drypoint) (final state)

Japonais sur un encrier (1881) by Henri-Charles Guérard

 Courtesy of the Minneapolis Institute of Art

(etching with drypoint)

Business cards - Japanese subjects (1885) by Henri-Charles Guérard

Courtesy of the New York Public Library

(etching counterproof)

Fifteen uncut blank cards (c. 1880s) by Henri-Charles Guérard

Courtesy of the New York Public Library

(etching with roulette)

After the "Assault on the Shoe," my favorite Guérard etching is probably "Le rat prédicateur."

Le rat prédicateur (c. 1880s) by Henri-Charles Guérard

Courtesy of the New York Public Library

(color etching with aquatint)

Before winding up this post, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Guérard, more than any other European artist of the period, was the greatest proponent of the use of  the Japanese fan shape in decorative art.  Some of his etchings were made in the fan shape, and Guérard also created a number of unique fan paintings.

Fan with mice (c. 1885) by Henri-Charles Guérard

 Courtesy of the Minneapolis Institute of Art

(etching with aquatint)

Shadow Theatre Fan (1885) by Henri-Charles Guérard

Courtesy of the Zimmerli Art Museum of Rutgers Univerity

(brush and ink on printed textile)

Untitled [Magpie] (c. 1890) by Henri-Charles Guérard

Courtesy of John and Lucy Buchanan

(watercolor on silk)

My thanks to Madeleine Viljoen, whose recently-concluded exhibition "A Curious Hand: The Prints of Henri-Charles Guérard 1846-1897" at the New York Public Library inspired this post.

 Self-Portrait Preparing an Etching (c. 1890) by Henri-Charles Guérard

 Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

(line etching with roulette and mezzotint)

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