Mademoiselle Ellen Helleu
c. 1897
Medium
Red chalk and black chalk, with incising, heightened with white pastel and white pastel mixed with red chalk, on cream wove Japanese paper
Dimensions
32.6 × 30.6 cm (12 7/8 × 12 1/16 in.)
Classification
chalk
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
45321
Art Historical Context
In the elegant world of Belle Époque Paris, Paul-César Hu captured the grace of his family in *Mademoiselle Ellen Helle* (c. 1897), a tender chalk portrait of his young daughter. Helleu, a celebrated portraitist admired by contemporaries like John Singer Sargent and Claude Monet, specialized in intimate depictions of women and children, blending Realism with a soft, luminous touch. This drawing, housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Prints Drawings collection, exemplifies his skill in rendering delicate features and fabrics with fluid precision. Executed on luxurious cream wove Japanese pa...