Angoisse de l'homme, 1955

Roger Vieillard  

Roger Vieillard was born in Le Mans in 1907. The young man was passionate about tennis; he studied classics in Paris (literature and law), attending the courses of the Sorbonne. In 1930, he did his military service in meteorology and was sent to Morocco where he began to draw (one of his great-grandfather, the painter Albert Maginel, had been a pupil and then a friend of Ingres). He will become a banker, while at the same time practicing his favorite sport at a high level. At the start of the 1930s, Roger Vieillard met the painter Jean Bazaine and the English engraver Stanley William Hayter at Atelier 17, a veritable experimental engraving laboratory. There he discovered the chisel which would become his favorite technique. From 1935, he frequented this workshop diligently, and for two years, the young artist perfected himself with Hayter and his friend Joseph Hecht.

In 1939, Roger Vieillard installed his first press. He married that same year with the American painter Anita de Caro, originally from New York, who arrived in France in 1936, whom he met at Atelier 17. They would form a symbolic couple of artistic Paris from the 1940s to the 1970s. Roger Vieillard was noticed by the gallery owner Jeanne Bucher who organized his first personal exhibition in 1942. His work as an engraver evolved over the course of his research and his innovations.

During the war, Roger Vieillard maintained a regular correspondence with Hayter who was in New York and the two artists collaborated. The years 1947 to 1958 were marked by numerous exhibitions (Rotterdam, Paris, Venice Biennale, in 1948 and 1950, Sao Paulo Biennale, in 1953-1954, etc.). His engravings were then inspired by the industrial world and by his work at the bank. The couple travels a lot and frequents, among others, Jenny Bradley, Dora Maar, the Chagall couple and the Maeghts.

From 1960 Roger Vieillard perfected a process that combined stucco moldings and his inked metal matrices. He thus brings engraving closer to sculpture by this process, obtaining bas reliefs. The print on plaster, called by the artist “engraved relief", is extremely reduced (rarely more than two proofs).

In 1967, Roger Vieillard organized an exhibition of the works of his friend Jacques Villon in Lisbon. The burinist retired at the end of the 1960s and could now devote himself solely to his work. A tireless researcher, he still tries new techniques.

The work of Roger Vieillard, which includes 662 prints, is very personal. The illustration of books, about thirty, represents half of his engraved work. The artist uses a precise line of great skill and has a unique style He is considered one of the greatest French burinist. The art of the chisel is demanding, few artists engage in it. Along with those of Henri-Georges Adam, Pierre Courtin, Albert Flocon, Ferdinand Springer, Raoul Ubac, his work is considered one of the most important in 20th century engraving. Roger Vieillard had just been elected a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, engraving section, when he died in 1989.