Joie de Vivre

Most of the great painters and sculptors working in France made original prints — sometimes alone, sometimes in collaboration with a master printer. Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso were graphic artists of particular genius, as were Pierre Bonnard and Georges Rouault. Others concentrated less on printmaking, Georges Braque and Raoul Dufy for example, while a few important artists of the School of Paris, such as Amedeo Modigliani and Chaïm Soutine, made no prints at all.

In the 1920s many artists reassessed the rapid changes of ideas and styles which had taken place in previous decades. The multitude of 'isms' which succeeded the Impressionist revolution in painting — Post-Impressionism, Symbolism, Fauvism, Cubism and so on — overlapped each other in a quest for originality of expression. In reaction to this, and possibly due to the losses and dislocations of the First World War, some artists returned to traditional subjects and figurative depiction. Figure studies, portraiture, landscape and still life could be used to explore various ideas free from the distraction of argument about abstract styles, and without confrontation about appropriate subjects.

The human figure, in particular the female body, was portrayed by Bonnard, Aristide Maillol and Matisse, among others. Bonnard's The bath 1924 uses the blunt crayon drawing so characteristic of the medium of lithography, to look at light and shadow falling on a woman in her bath. The extraordinary beauty to be found in the most banal domestic situation is revealed in Bonnard's depiction of his favourite model, his wife Marthe.

The sculptor Maillol, by contrast, chooses to recall a mythical woman, a Roman goddess, in his strongly-modelled study of Juno 1925. She sits alone, confined within a square on a white page, whereas Matisse's Model resting 1922, surrounded by patterns and furnishings, stares back at the artist and the viewer with sensual confidence. The model is shown from an unusual angle, the lower half of her body cropped. Later in the 1920s, Matisse made a series of spiky drypoints and etchings of nudes in varied, often awkward poses. Compared with the monumental lithographs, they seem transparent, almost ethereal.

The depiction of bathers is a perennial theme used by artists to bring together two preoccupations: the nude and the landscape. Jules Pascin presents the unusual combination of clothed and naked figures in his Bathers c. 1922, scattering them across the composition like elements of a stage design. Influences from Cézanne to Matisse, from Cubism and German Expressionism, can be seen in this light-hearted work. Dufy's exuberant Bathers 1923 gambol on the water like cherubs among the clouds. His rhythmic, stylised strokes serve as visual shorthand for the rippling waves.

Rouault placed his female figures in the suitably fecund setting of an orchard for Autumn 1927. The artist returned to the same subjects throughout his life, often re-working the lithographic stone or etching plate. Thick, rounded black outlines serve to separate the women's white bodies from the scratched background. Fernand Léger, on the other hand, employed much flatter black lines and large patches of bright colour in his lithographs such as The builders and Contentment, produced in the early 1950s. The joyous effect of the primaries — red, blue and yellow — and strong secondary colours such as orange and green is enhanced by the simple opposition of black outlines and surrounding areas of white paper.

As well as using models as figures in a landscape, and for nude studies, artists also made portraits of their models, who were often wives or lovers. Picasso's partners are well known to us from his images of them. Françoise Gilot wears the artist's gift of a Polish embroidered coat in Woman in an armchair no. 1 1948—49. The curves of the sleeves enclose her, so that the body seems to become part of the chair.

Picasso's ability to extend the medium he uses can be seen in the linocut Jacqueline reading 1962—64. Instead of incising channels into the linoleum block in the usual way, the artist has abraded the surface of one block to give the most subtle variations in tonal modelling, then superimposed another block with sharply cut black lines. Tenderness and strength, normally opposing qualities, are reconciled here.

The great traditions of classical, biblical and modern literature are mined by the artists of the School of Paris. André Derain illustrated the satirical stories of the Latin writer Petronius. The crisply engraved continuous lines of his prints do not convey the earthy human comedy of the narrative, rather, they impart a severe beauty.

Nine different states of Picasso's lithograph David and Bathsheba give us the rare opportunity to see art in the making. Picasso worked on the matrix of this print in bursts in the years 1947 to 1949. He based his composition on Cranach the Elder's painting of 1526, which depicts the Old Testament story of a royal seduction. From the roof of his palace, King David spied his general's wife, Bathsheba, while she was bathing. After Bathsheba became pregnant, David arranged her husband's death in battle, so that he could marry her.

A German Renaissance painter's view of a biblical story is explored by Picasso to reveal aspects of his eternal subject — the emotional relations between men and women. David is portrayed as a playing-card king surrounded by his courtiers, a sexual voyeur of the self-satisfied Bathsheba, an old man looking upon a young woman with a desire not yet fulfilled.

Picasso's thoughts on the process of composition are revealed as he blocks in shapes, scratches in lines for decoration, and changes from black lines on white to white lines on black. At one stage he scraped off the image completely and redrew it. He finally abandoned the work as unsatisfactory. But we are left with a demonstration of the artist's power of feeling and amazing talent for experiment.

As well as the sensual and the material, artists deal with the spiritual aspects of emotion. Georges Rouault found an enduring image in the crucifixion. The melancholy beauty of the suffering Christ is the darker side of those earthly pleasures celebrated by most other artists of the School of Paris. For Rouault, redemption through self-sacrifice transforms death into life. In his illustrations for Baudelaire's poems The flowers of evil, pure jewel colours are contained within framing lines of black. A head of Christ, three crosses, and a tomb are used as foils for the decadent, worldly characters of prostitutes and lawyers.

The doubtful joys of the circus — the tragic clown, the delicate balance of the trapezist, the brief pleasure of the performance — are depicted by Chagall, Picasso and Rouault, among others. Chagall concentrates on the child's view of the circus as a world of marvels. His Three acrobats 1956 include bare-breasted gymnasts and a goat carrying a bouquet of flowers. In contrast, Rouault sees The clown's patter 1929 as a show of bravado, the laughter masking the emptiness of reality.

While figures are the perennial subject matter for artists from the School of Paris, still life and landscape are investigated also. In the genre of still life, as the English term implies, the artist dispenses with the distraction of movement inherent in human and animal bodies. The French term, nature morte (literally 'dead nature'), suggests that life has departed from the things under scrutiny. Objects from everyday life, especially tables with dishes, bowls of fruit and potted plants, are portrayed as beautiful in their own right, as well as retaining their domestic and personal associations.

Braque uses the conventions of still life to look at elements such as colour and texture. In the stunning lithograph Leaves, colour, light 1953—54, he adopts the flattened organic shapes so characteristic of Matisse, and simplifies the tonal range of each object. Ochre green and rust red are printed onto the paper so that its whiteness shines through; the composition is then framed in black. Braque has created both a specific and a universal harmony with a vase of leaves on a table in a room.

Cityscapes rather than rural landscapes are the natural subjects for these artists. Derain's Trees surely decorate an urban park rather than natural woods, and Maurice de Vlaminck's landscapes usually focus on cottages rather than mountains. Maurice Utrillo is associated with Paris and its environs, particularly the artists' quarters of Montmartre and Montparnasse. His image of the village street, with its inn sign of the Nimble Rabbit, encapsulates the affection artists had for the life of Paris — its bucolic suburbs as well as Bohemian cafés and glamorous nightlife.

In his lively poster to advertise an art students' ball, Matisse combines brightly-coloured paper cutout squares with an elegant drawn outline of a woman's head. In 1951 the octogenarian artist still delighted in life, contributing his energy and passion for the enjoyment of another generation. His work shows many of the strengths of the School of Paris, perhaps most of all, la joie de vivre.

Christine Dixon
International Prints and Illustrated Books