Louis Monzies

Career

Louis Monziès began to learn painting and etching in Paris in 1871 from the painters Jean-Louis Ernest Meissonier and Isidore Pils, and from the etcher Léon Gaucherel. He got second-class and third-class medals in 1876, 1880 and 1881 at the annual Salon in Paris.

He married Eugénie Alphonsine Courtignon in 1882 at Cherbourg and three children were born : Jean in 1889, Pierre in 1891 and Jacques in 1895. He lived then in Paris but he owned also a small house in Normandy near Gréville-Hague.

Louis Monziès carried out etchings for illustrated books and for Art publications, among them, those after Meissonier and Henri Pille. He became a member of the Société des artistes français in 1884 and also a member of the Société des Peintres-Graveurs français in 1891. He was quite popular in Parisian art salons with the Hédouins and in the literary gathering of the editor Lemerre who published famous living writers and poets with Louis' etchings.

Louis Monziès visited London and was named to the Royal Society of Painters-Etchers in 1894 when he received orders for illustrations for English books and publications. His etchings are included in major collections such as The British Library or the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.

But with photo-etching and other new publication processes, etchers were less and less able to make a good living from their skills. Louis Monziès move to Le Mans and became a painting teacher and a painting restoration specialist. He began to paint landscapes and urban environments in Normandy and in other towns like Venise or Avignon. He sold a lot of watercolors and oil paintings before the First World War. A few of these paintings where sent to the USA by American officers housed by the painter at the end of the war.

He became the curator of the Museums of Le Mans in March 1920 and stayed so until his death in 1930.

Etchings after oil paintings

Season of October (1894) after Bastien-Lepage

Thhe beggar (1881) after Bastien-Lepage

Aurore and Céphale after Boucher

Woman lying down after Boucher

Pastorale (1902) after Boucher

The Pilgrims from the Abbey of St. Odile (1876) after Brion

Burial of a Sailor at Villerville (1880) after Butin

Hare after Chardin

Sarah Bernard (1881) after Clairin

Portrait of the etcher Schmidt after de La Tour

The bath (1897) after Demont Breton

Self-portrait with his family (1891) after de Vos

Portrait of Ulysse Butin (1880) after Duez

Th birth after Duez

Wedding at City Hall (1873) after Durand

Portraits of Mr and Mrs Edwin Edwards after Fantin-Latour

Young girl with small dogs (1888) after Fragonard

Hawking (1877) after Fromentin

Sarah Siddons after Gainsborough

In 1795 (1895) after Goupil

Wonderful after Goupil

The payer after Greuze

Whasherwomen after Heilbuth

Bridesmaids to marry after Jiménez Aranda

Henri de la Rochejacquelein after Le Blant

Fishing (1880) after Leloir

Apotheosis de Carpeaux (1892) after Maignan

Bridge inn of Poissy (1889) after Meissonier

Harlequin with a rose (1888) after Meissonier

Son of Meissonier as Louis XIII (1888) after Meissonier

Koubra in the workshop after Meissonier

Young man reading after Meissonier

At Diderot's Library (1885) after Meissonier

Maréchal Duroc Duc de Frioul (1876) after Meissonier

Musketeer after Meissonier

Dutch woman and child after Neuhuys

Portrait of woman in red after Pontormo

The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian (1879) after Ribot

Henry VI after Seymour Lucas

Confidence after Stevens

Rider on a sofa (1870) after Vibert

Coquelin elder (1875) after Vibert

Melon merchant (1876) after Vibert

Lady Lindsay of Balcarres (1877) after Watts

Hugo Van Der Goes at the convent of Rooden Cloestere (1875) after Wauters

Flemish Postal Station after Wouwerman

Etchings for French books

Abbé Prévost - Manon Lescaut, Lemerre, 1870, 1878 : etchings after Gravelot and Jacques Jean Pasquier

Ackermann - Œuvres, Lemerre, 1877 : frontispiece

Arène - Œuvres, Lemerre, 1877 : frontispiece

Asselineau - Le livre des sonnets, Lemerre, 1893 : frontispiece

Barbey d'Aurevilly - Le bonheur dans le crime, Société Normande du livre illustré, 1897 : etchings after Regamey

Beaumarchais - Le barbier de Séville, Librairie des Bibliophiles, 1882 : etchings after Santiago Arcos

Beaumarchais - Le mariage de Figaro, Librairie des Bibliophiles, 1882 : etchings after Santiago Arcos

Bernardin de Saint-Pierre - Paul et Virginie, Lemerre 1877 : frontispiece

Boileau- Œuvres, Lemerre, 1875 : etchings after Cochin

Brillat-Savarin - Physiologie du goût, Carteret 1923

Burty - L'eau-forte en 1875, Cadart 1875 : etching "L'amateur de tableaux"

Burty - L'eau-forte en 1878, Cadart 1878 : etching "L'opinion du modèle"

Châteaubrian - Œuvres, Lemerre, 1877 : frontispiece after Devéria

Chénier - Poésies, Charpentier 1888 : etchings after Bida,

Claretie - Œuvres, Lemerre,1886 : frontispiece

Desbordes-Valmore- Œuvres poétiques, Lemerre 1886 : frontispiece

Dorchain - Poésies, Lemerre, 1895 : frontispiece

Flaubert, Théatre, Lemere, 1885 : frontispiece

Hugo - Cromwell, Lemerre : frontispiece

Hugo - Légende des siècles, Edition Nationale Emile Testard & Cie, 1886 : etchings after E. Bordes

Hugo - Les Orientales, etchings

Hugo - Odes et ballades, etchings

Hugo - Notre-Dame de Paris, Lemerre, 1879 : etchings after Pille

La Fontaine - Contes, Lemerre, 1876 : etchings after Fragonard, Lancret, Pater, Boucher, Eisen, Vleughels

La Fontaine - Fables, Lemerre : etchings after Oudry

Lafenestre - Le livre d'or du salon de peinture et de sculpture 1881, Librairie des bibliophile, 1881 : etching

Lemaistre de Sacy - L'Histoire de Joseph, Hachette 1878 : etchings after Bida

Lemaistre de Sacy - L'Histoire de Tobie, Hachette 1880 : etchings after Bida

Lesage - Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane, Lemerre : etchings after Pille

Lesage - Le Diable boiteux, Lemerre : etchings after Pille

Louvet de Couvray - Les amours du chevalier de Faublas, Librairie des Bibliophiles, 1884 : etchings after Avril

Mantz - François Boucher, Quantin : etchings after Boucher

Martial - L'Illustration nouvelle par une société de peintres-graveurs à l'eau-forte, sixième année, Cadart 1879 : etching "Le joueur de Mandoline"

Michelet, Jeanne d'Arc, Hachette, 1888 : etchings after Bida

Musset, Œuvres, Lemerre, 1878 : etchings after Pille

Perrault - Contes de Fées, Lemerre : etchings after Pille

Portalis - Honoré Fragonard, sa vie et son oeuvre, Rothschild, 1889 : etching

Racine, Œuvres, Lemerre, 1874 : etchings after Gravelot

Sarasin, frontispiece

Scarron - Le Roman Comique, Lemerre : etchings after Pille

Shakespeare - Œuvres, Lemerre : etchings after Pille

Uzanne - Caprices d'un bibliophile, 1878 : etchings

Voltaire - Romans, Lemerre, 1878 : etchings after Monnet and Marillier

Etchings for English books

Brooks - Dames and Daughters of the French Court : portrait of Madame Valmore

Charles and Mary Lamb - Tales from Shakespeare, Heath & Co, 1908 : etchings

Chevillard Lenoir - Celebrated Artists Sketches of Their Lives and Works, Nims & Knight, 1888

Comyns Carr - Examples of Contemporary Arts. Etchings from Representative Works by living English and Foreign Artists, 1878 : etching "Lady Lindsay of Balcarres" d'après Watts

Hugo - Dramas, G. Barrie, 1896 : etching after E. Bordes

Louvet de Couvray - The amours of the chevalier de Faublas, Société des Bibliophiles, 1898 : etchings after Avril

Musset - All writings, Edwin C. Hill