Edouard Chimot and the Lost Girls of Montmartre

It�s a while since I posted about the master of the Art Deco nude, �douard Chimot. Of course if Chimot were simply a depictor of the nude, there wouldn�t be much to say about him�boudoir pictures are boudoir pictures, and that�s it. But Chimot is a much more complex artist than that�one in whom the twin themes of Eros and Thanatos, Love and Death, are inextricably intertwined.

�douard Chimot, Le caf�-concert maudit

Colour etching with aquatint for La mont�e aux enfers, 1920

Of course Love sells better than Death, so sensuous nudes inevitably predominate in �douard Chimot�s work. But his obsession with prostitutes, drug addicts, and good girls gone bad, means that the spectre of death and destitution hovers behind and around Chimot�s nudes, turning them from decorative erotica into perverse memento mori. They are women �soumises � leurs passions mortelles et d�licieuses�, as the critic Andr� Warnod put it.

�douard Chimot, La Mort

Etching with aquatint for L'enfer, 1921

In my previous post, The fast rise and long slow fall of �douard Chimot, I mentioned that Chimot had apparently been commissioned in 1903 as architect of the Villa Lysis in Capri, for the dissolute Baron Jacques d'Adelsw�rd-Fersen. It seems from the current Wikipedia entry on the Villa Lysis that this is not quite the case, based on a study of Jacques d'Adelsw�rd-Fersen�s correspondence with Chimot; Chimot�s role was more likely that of interior decorator. In a comment on my earlier post, Martin Stone notes that �he was also the art director of Fersen's review Akedemos (1909-1910).� The inscription above the door of the Villa Lysis, AMORI ET DOLORI SACRUM, certainly shows that �douard Chimont and Jacques d'Adelsw�rd-Fersen were kindred spirits, for the same words could also be inscribed above Chimot�s work: A Shrine to Love and Sorrow.

�douard Chimot, L'enfer

Etching with aquatint for L'enfer, 1921

When speaking of the art of �douard Chimot in the context of this post, I am speaking only of the work created before the Wall Street Crash. Anything published after 1931 (allowing for projects already in the pipeline to emerge) is the work of a lesser, lighter artist. The intensity and complexity of Chimot�s work in the 1920s is completely missing.

�douard Chimot, Ce sont les autres qui meurent

Etching with aquatint for L'enfer, 1921

All the images in this post are etchings with aquatint published between 1919 and 1922, the years when Chimot exploded onto the Paris art scene. These established him as a central figure in the world of printmaking and fine press publishing. He was the artistic director of the publications of both La Roseraie (the atelier and publishing house of Roger Lacouri�re) and of Les �ditions d�Art Devambez. In the latter role, especially, Chimot was crucial to the artistic development of many important artists of the twenties.

�douard Chimot, Les Apr�s-Midi de Montmartre

Etching with aquatint for Les Apr�s-Midi de Montmartre, 1919

�douard Chimot, Le rouge et le noir

Etching with aquatint for Les Apr�s-Midi de Montmartre, 1919

The etchings that made Chimot�s name, published in 1919 as Les Apr�s-Midi de Montmartre, are precious evidence of Chimot�s pre-war work. They were made in 1913, but publication was delayed by the Great War. You can see that the hairstyles and clothes (when worn) are quite different from the 1920s etchings. The difference in style is not huge, but in these early etchings one can still see the influence of Symbolists such as F�licien Rops, Louis Legrand, Armand Rassenfosse, and Henri Thomas. �douard Chimot was to take the aesthetic of these artists into the twenties, and blend it seamlessly with the glittering curves of Art Deco.

�douard Chimot, Moulin Rouge

Etching with aquatint for Les Apr�s-Midi de Montmartre, 1919

�douard Chimot, La fille et sa m�re

Etching with aquatint for Les Apr�s-Midi de Montmartre, 1919

The Apr�s-Midi de Montmartre etchings were printed on a hand press by Eug�ne Del�tre, in an edition of 170 copies. I love the connection they make right back from the post-war world into the dying days of the Belle �poque.

�douard Chimot, Opium

Etching with aquatint for Les Apr�s-Midi de Montmartre, 1919

�douard Chimot, �pave

Etching with aquatint for Les Apr�s-Midi de Montmartre, 1919

After the war, �douard Chimot established himself in an atelier in the rue Amph�re in Montmartre. The atmosphere there is well described by Chimot�s close friend, the poet Maurice Magre, in Magre�s introduction to Chimot�s edition of Jean de Tinan�s La Petite Jeanne p�le. Magre writes, �L�atelier de Chimot est un coin de Paris o� Montmartre d�aujourd�hui se condence � certaines heures, se cristallise, donne tout son comique, toute sa couleur et parfois toute sa peine. C�est toujours la pens�e d�un individu qui cr�e et qui groupe. C�est la pens�e de Chimot, son amour pour cette forme de l�existence parisienne qui a cr�� le miroir vivant, aux facettes varies, qui donne en tournant ces images qui ne sont jamais banales et qui toutes sont representatives.�