Charles Huard

Untitled

Lithograph, 20th Century.
Image: 9 1/2 x 13″
Paper: 11 x 14 1/2″
Excellent condition.

Inventory Number: 10661
Signed in pencil by artist.
People with carriages and horses traveling.

A well known French lithographer, etcher and illustrator, Charles Huard first worked in Paris for journals such as Le Rire and La Journal amusant. By 1900 he had emerged as a leading illustrator and was constantly commissioned by publishers. Such fine illustrated books as Clemenceau’s, Figures de Vendee and Flaubert’s, Bouvard et Pecuchet are from his hand as well as the monumental complete works of Balzac. Through popular books such as these Huard gained his reputation as a prime delineator of everyday life.

Original lithography and etching also occupied much of Huard’s artistic oeuvre. He initially studied etching techniques under Eugene Bejot in Paris. His first published prints date from the turn of the century and from that time until the beginning of the First World War most of his fine etchings and lithographs concentrated upon views of cities and towns in both France and Germany.

During the First World War (1914-1918) Charles Huard served as an artist for the French government. The etchings and lithographs he made of French military life within the war zones provide an important and lasting record of these momentous times. Almost all his original prints from this period were published in signed editions of one hundred impressions.