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Louise Hervieu
Louise Hervieu
	Louise Hervieu in 1936
Born	26 October 1878; Alençon
Died	11 September 1954 (aged 75); Versailles

Louise Hervieu (French pronunciation: [lwiz ɛʁvjø]; 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 favour 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 Edmond-Marie Poullain [fr], with whom she travelled several times to Bréhal. In 1915, the weakening of her sight forced her to go from colour 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 the white of the paper reappear.

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 Marie-Anne Camax-Zoegger [fr] 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 rue du Cherche Midi [fr] 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 Edmond Heuzé [fr], 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)