Claude WEISBUCH

Claude Weisbuch (1927-2014): Life, Drypoints and Original Prints

Claude Weisbuch (born in Thionville, Lorraine, on 8 February 1927; died in Paris on 13 April 2014) was a French painter, draughtsman and printmaker whose whole output is about movement: violinists lost in their bowing, actors of the commedia dell’arte, riders and rearing horses, figures caught in a whirl of line. Trained in Nancy, for many years a teacher of engraving at the École des Beaux-Arts in Saint-Étienne, and winner of the Paris Prix de la Critique in 1961, he left a large body of drypoints, etchings and original lithographs, together with a long series of illustrated books for French bibliophile societies.

At present Le Coin des Arts offers one original print by Weisbuch: Le Dragon (c. 1970), an engraving signed in pencil and numbered from an edition of 100, in which the beast seems to emerge from a tangle of nervous lines. The gallery follows the artist’s work closely and acquires further impressions as they come up – use the “follow the artist” button to be told when they do.

A Lorraine apprenticeship (1927-1956)

Born to a mother from Lorraine and a father of Romanian origin, Weisbuch grew up in Nancy; the exodus of 1940 took the family to Roanne for the rest of the Occupation. Back in Lorraine he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts de Nancy, notably under the painter Camille Hilaire. Printmaking quickly became his chosen field: his first one-man shows in Nancy, in the early 1950s, were devoted to his engravings, and in 1953 he was included in the print section of the Salon de Mai in Paris. Critics have always linked him with the great etchers he revered – Rembrandt, Jacques Callot, himself a son of Nancy, and Honoré Daumier.

Recognition in Paris, and a London debut (1956-1968)

Weisbuch showed with the Salon de la Jeune Peinture in 1956, 1958, 1959 and 1961, and with the Peintres témoins de leur temps at the Palais Galliera. His first Paris solo exhibition, at the Galerie Saint-Placide in 1957, combined paintings, drawings and prints; in 1958 Nancy saw his Don Quixote series. In 1960 the Galerie Hervé showed his Pantomimes extraordinaires, and the Prix de la Critique of 1961 brought him the recognition that had been slow to come. Exhibitions abroad followed almost at once, beginning with London in 1962, where he showed at the O’Hana Gallery – then Tokyo in 1963, Toronto in 1965 and Turin in 1966. In 1968 he was elected a full member of the Société des Peintres-Graveurs Français.

Musicians, horses and books (1968-1990)

In 1970 Weisbuch exhibited at Sagot-Le Garrec, one of the historic Paris print dealers, and his reputation spread to Japan and North America. Alongside his teaching in Saint-Étienne he illustrated a remarkable run of books: Chrétien de Troyes’s Le Chevalier de la Charrette (1966, 22 drypoints), Machiavelli’s The Prince (1972), Maupassant’s Le Horla (1976, 14 drypoints), Tolstoy’s Le Cheval (1982, six etchings) and Goethe’s Faust in Nerval’s translation (1984, lithographs). The critic Patrick Waldberg devoted a monograph to his graphic work in 1983, and the Château de Chenonceau held a retrospective in 1988.

Late years, public collections and the British market

In 1992 the Bibliothèque nationale included him in De Bonnard à Baselitz. From 1995 the Strasbourg publisher L’Estampe issued his prints and in 1999 mounted Weisbuch, 50 ans d’estampes, a survey of 230 works. His work is held by the Centre Pompidou, the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris and the print room of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, among others; further afield, The Annex Galleries’ collection list cites the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide. In Britain, where he had exhibited at the O’Hana Gallery in 1962, his prints now circulate mainly through dealers and auction rooms, and signed etchings and lithographs remain within reach of the first-time collector.

The prints: techniques, printers and the question of a catalogue

The Bénézit dictionary calls him a virtuoso in every engraving technique. His favourite was drypoint, often combined with etching, on copper or zinc – an intaglio technique in which the burr thrown up by the needle prints as a soft, velvety black – but he was equally at ease in lithography, in black, sepia or colour. His books were printed by intaglio workshops such as the Atelier Rigal (1966) and Patrick Degouy (1972 and 1982). Separately published prints, including those issued by L’Estampe, are usually editions of about 100, signed and numbered in pencil. As far as we know there is no complete, widely cited catalogue raisonné of his prints; the reference books are Waldberg (1983) and Bohbot and Tasset (1999). A sound description therefore gives title, technique, date, dimensions, edition and publisher rather than a catalogue number.

Collecting Claude Weisbuch: a buyer’s guide

Edition. Look for a pencil numbering such as ‘12/100’ or an artist’s proof (E.A.). Our page on the printing explains the conventions.

Signature. An original Weisbuch print is normally signed in pencil in the lower margin; a signature in the plate is not enough on its own.

Book plates. Many drypoints and lithographs come from his illustrated books. They are original prints but usually unsigned, and they are worth less than a signed, separately issued impression.

Posters. Exhibition posters – for the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris or for American galleries – are mostly offset reproductions, even when signed or dedicated. They are documents, not original prints.

Condition. Drypoint blacks are fragile: check for rubbing, foxing, light-staining and old hinges. See our pages on authenticity and framing.

Le Coin des Arts selects Weisbuch’s prints with the same care as those of other figurative printmakers of the twentieth century, such as Bernard Buffet, Jean Carzou, Gen Paul, Johnny Friedlaender and Erik Desmazières. Browse our engravings and lithographs, illustrated books and contemporary art.

Sources and further reading

Patrick Waldberg, Claude Weisbuch – Œuvres graphiques, Frédéric Birr / Ateliers Henri Labat, 1983 · Michel Bohbot and Jean-Marie Tasset, Weisbuch, Éditions de l’Amateur, 1999 · Claude Roger-Marx, Claude Weisbuch, Vision Nouvelle, 1973 · Françoise Woimant et al., De Bonnard à Baselitz, BnF, 1992 · Bénézit Dictionary of Artists · The Annex Galleries – Claude Weisbuch · L’Estampe, Strasbourg – Claude Weisbuch · Wikipédia (French) – Claude Weisbuch