Hermine David

French, 1886–1970

Birth placeParis, France

Death placeBry-sur-Marne, France

Biographyhttp://www.artoftheprint.com/artistpages/david_hermine_laconcorde.htm
Hermine David: A famous twentieth century French painter, printmaker and illustrator, Hermine David was among the first women to be accepted to study at the prestigious Ecole des Beaux Arts. Even more amazing was the fact that she began her formal studies at this school at the age of sixteen. David began to exhibit her art in Paris in 1904 at the Salon des Femmes Peintres et Sculpteurs. Within several years she was also exhibiting with the Salon des Artistes Francais and at the Salon d'Automne and quickly established herself as a leading painter, miniaturist and printmaker.
In 1907 Hermine David became involved with Jules Pascin (1855-1930), one of Paris's most brilliant and controversial artists. The two artists lived and worked in various studios in Montmartre and Montparnasse before traveling to New York in 1915. David and Pascin were married there several years later. Shortly after 1920 they separated and David returned to live in Paris.
The 1920's and 1930's decades marked David's greatest and most productive period of artistic activity. She was commissioned to illustrate many fine books including, Rimbaud's, Une Saison en Enfer, Verlaine's, La Bonne Chanson, Mauriac's, Fabien as well as Le Contes de Perrault, Les Poesies de Charles d'Orleans and Ariel ou la Vie de Shelley. As an original printmaker, Hermine David excelled in the mediums of drypoint engraving and lithography. She created over fifty drypoints and around twenty lithographs. The majority of these striking works of art depicted scenes in and around Paris. Most were printed and published by the Paris publishing house of Jacquart.
Hermine David remained an active and influential artist well into the 1960's. During this time she concentrated mainly upon watercolours and received a major award for her art in 1965 at the Biennale de Deauville.

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