Louise Hervieu

Louise Hervieu (26 October 1878 – 11 September 1954) was a French writer, artist, painter, draftsman, and lithographer.
Biography
Syphilitic of birth, of very fragile health, Louise Hervieu revealed a gift for drawing from her childhood. Discouraged after the failure of her unique exhibition of paintings in oil in 1910, she abandoned painting in favor of drawing and lithography. She illustrated les Fleurs du mal and le Spleen de Paris by Baudelaire. She published collections of drawings and novels that she embellished with her illustrations. She was close to the painter , with whom she traveled several times to Bréhal. In 1915, the weakening of her sight forced her to go from color to black and white. A refined valorist, her technique of drawing in the wash or charcoal was characterized by the removal of certain parts of the surface of the work to obtain clear nuances by making reappear the white of the paper.
One of her works, le Bon Vouloir, was crowned by the Académie française and another one, Sangs, was awarded the prix Femina in 1936. This award allowed her to give great publicity to the battle she led throughout her life against this scourge that made her suffer constantly.
It is to Louise Hervieu that is also owed the attribution, obtained from a hard struggle in 1938, of a "health notebook", by the public authorities, to every newborn child, and in which would have been inscribed the antecedents of the parents, then all the care, all the diseases of the child, and then of the adult until his/her death, to serve in turn to keep his/her children and grandchildren healthy.
The Association Louise Hervieu for the establishment of the health notebook, was created for this purpose. On 1 June 1939, finally, a ministerial decree instituted the health card for the use of French citizens. This notebook unfortunately only had an ephemeral existence.
A retrospective of her works with those of Suzanne Valadon and was organised at the Musée Galliera of Paris, in 1961.
The rue Louise Hervieu, a street in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, pays homage to her. A commemorative plaque is placed on in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, at number 55, where she lived.
Literary works
1921: Entretiens sur le dessin avec Geneviève, Bernheim-Jeune, Paris
1927: Le Bon Vouloir, Librairie de France, Paris, distinguished by the Académie française.
1924: L’Âme du cirque, illustrations by , Librairie de France
1928: Montsouris, Émile-Paul frères, Paris
1936: Sangs, Éditions Denoël and Steele, Paris, prix Femina.
1937: Le Crime, Denoël
1942: Lettres à Lucy Krohg, Association
1943: Le malade vous parle, Denoël
1953: La Rose de sang, ou Le Printemps de la jeune Heredote, P. Cailler, Geneva
Pictorial works
Illustrations
Vingt nus, Librairie de France, Paris
Les Fleurs du mal, Ollendorff, Paris, 1920
Poèmes de Baudelaire, illustrations and foreword by Louise Hervieu, Textes Prétextes, Paris, 1946
Réminiscences, Compagnie française des arts graphiques, Paris, 1946
Liturgies intimes, Paul Verlaine, illustrations by Louise Hervieu, Éditions Manuel Bruker, 1948
Musée national d’Art moderne de Paris
Dédié à Baudelaire, before 1922
Le Christ enchainé de Suippes, before 1922
Nu dans un intérieur renaissance, before 1925
La madeleine et le philosophe, before 1927
Nu dans un intérieur de style, before 1927
Choix de coquillages, before 1931
Fleurs de cerisier, 1934
Tête de clown, 1934
Noir sur noir, 1934
Fruits, 1934
Vieux dieux chinois, 1934
Massacre de cerf, 1934
La pendule, before 1939
Les pommes, c. 1941
Les poires, c. 1941
Le salon du carnet de santé
Plumes
Femme malade
Musée du Louvre, département des arts graphiques
Coquillages et colliers, RF 36812, recto
Nœud noir et plume d'autruche blanche, RF 40961, recto
Vieille paysanne assise, de face, en train de coudre, RF 28788, recto
Bibliography
Pierre Courthion, Panorama de la peinture française contemporaine, Simon Kra, 1927, (pp. 142–145)
Claude Roger-Marx, Éloge de Louise Hervieu, Manuel Bruker Éditeur, 1953
Guillaume d’Enfert, Louise Hervieu et Bretteville-sur-Ay. Hommage à Louise Hervieu, publié à l’occasion du 2e Salon des écrivains du terroir de Bretteville-sur-Ay, Éditions du Jardin d’Eden, 2004
Sanchez Nelly, « Prix Femina 1936 : Sangs de Louise Hervieu », New Zealand Journal of French Studies, 2013, n°2, vol. 34, (pp. 41–54)
Sanchez Nelly, « Louise Hervieu, dessinatrice et littératrice », La Corne de Brume, 2013, n°10, (pp. 41–46)
External links
Official website of Louise Hervieu
Louise Hervieu, du dessin au carnet de santé par Guillaume d’Enfert on CAIRN
Louise Hervieu on WikiManche
Louise HERVIEU (1878 - 1954) on Stephen Ongpin Fine Art
HERVIEU Louise Jeanne Aimée (1878 -1964) on Artprecium
20th-century French painters
French draughtsmen
20th-century French lithographers
20th-century French non-fiction writers
Writers from Normandy
20th-century French women writers
French feminist writers
Prix Femina winners
1878 births
1954 deaths