1

In 1878, the publishers C. Marpon and E. Flammarion published a lavishly illustrated edition of �mile Zola�s novel L�Assommoir. The title page had a wood engraving of the central character Gervaise by Fortun� Louis M�aulle after a drawing by Andr� Gill, but no other indication of the treasure trove of art to be found within. In fact half a dozen engravers had been kept busy interpreting illustrations by a gallery of artists, including Gill, Norbert Goeneutte, Fr�d�ric Regamey, Henri Gervex, Daniel Vierge, Maurice Leloir, Georges Bellenger, and Fran�ois Feyen-Perrin. There are 62 plates in all, and four of them are by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. La descente des ouvriers Wood engraving by Fortun� M�aulle after Norbert Goeneutte, 1878 I don�t know who the publishers engaged to art direct this complex illustrated book, but my hunch would be Regamey, the former art director of the 1870s journal Paris � l�eau-forte , to which many of these artists (though not Renoir) had contributed. I suspect t

Max Pollak was born in Prague in 1886. He grew up in Vienna, where he studied printmaking under William Unger and Ferdinand Schmutzer. He won the Prix de Rome for his etchings in 1910. In WWI Pollak was an official war artist for the Austrian army. After spending three years in Paris, in 1927 Max Pollak emigrated to the United States, settling in San Francisco, where he lived for the rest of his life. He was a member of the California Society of Etchers (winning their award in 1942, 1944, and 1945) and of the Chicago Society of Etchers (winning their award in 1942). In his American years Pollak etched scenes in Mexico and Central America, as well as California. Brilliant and accomplished as these etchings are, it is generally thought that his work in Vienna and Paris is his finest, most particularly the sensuous portraits he etched of dancers such as Maria Ley, Kitty Starling, Ronny Johansson, and Isa Marsen. These are triumphant examples of movement captured in a still image, etched i