Print as sculpture
The critic Roger Marx praised gypsography as ‘L’estampe de sculpteur’ – sculptor’s printmaking. Contemporaries also referred to the technique as ‘l’estampe modelée’ or ‘modelled print’. In other words, gypsography brought together printmaking and sculpture: the reliefs, decorated in pastel tones, are reminiscent of antique sculpture.
For the aficionados
Roche was able to use the relief to represent nature – branches, leaves, human figures or undulating, splashing water – in a highly detailed and decorative way in his prints. His focus on nature’s wave-like lines places him among the artists of the Art Nouveau.
The fact that the prints were so unusual and delicate meant that gypsographs were mostly purchased by real aficionados. They were genuine works of art for the most dedicated of print collectors.
Pierre Roche, The Hesperides (Les Hespérides) from the album L'Estampe nouvelle, 1909
Pierre Roche, Introduction with vignette for the series Le cantique des créatures, 1894
Pierre Roche, Seaweed (Algues marines), 1893
Further reading
- Clément Janin, ‘Un artiste inventeur, PIERRE ROCHE’, in: Bulletin Officiel de l’Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs 12 (1900), no. 1, pp. 383-387.
- Janine Bailly-Herzberg, Dictionnaire de l’estampe en France 1830-1950, Paris 1985.
- Elizabeth Prelinger, ‘Pierre Roche and the “belle gypsographie”’, in: Print Quarterly 2 (1993), no. 10, pp. 138-155.