René Georges Hermann-Paul
(1864–)
(–1940)
René Georges Hermann-Paul
1864–1940
René Georges Hermann-Paul (1864–1940) was a French satirist, illustrator, and printmaker of bourgeois values—cynical, abrasive, and even rude in his depictions. His work gained public attention for their imbued social criticism and satiric characterizations of all levels of French society during the Belle Époque, a historical period of French, Belgian, and European, beginning roughly around 1871 and ending with the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Parisians got to know Hermann-Paul as a stalwart defender of Alfred Dreyfus, whose trial and conviction in 1894 on treason charges became one of the most polarizing political dramas in modern French history. His mediums included enamel paint, watercolors, woodcuts, lithographs, drypoint engraving, oils, and ink. Hermann-Paul’s work was displayed in gallery exhibitions alongside prominent artists such as Vuillard, Matisse, and Toulouse-Lautrec.
Born in Paris, Hermann-Paul worked earlier in his career as a lithographer (both in color and black and white) and as an illustrator for weekly publications between 1890 and 1914. Hermann-Paul was critical of monarchs, paupers, politicians, clerics, and elements of the established order. He was a committed social commentator for over three decades, although in his last years, his politics moved decisively toward the right.