Hervé, Henry I (SCC Newsletter January 2009)

Henry I Herve

A recorded work on Plaster.

Henry Herve advertised on most of his labels that he painted work on plaster, although Mrs McK in her entry on the artist in Section Four (artists that painted on plaster) stated that she had not seen an example. Now the pair above have come to light.

Herve is known for his large output of hollow-cut profiles and those painted on glass backed with a pinkish composition. He produced six trade labels and four of these mentioned work on plaster. This pair are owned by a correspondent, who had studied the Book!

The owner apologised for the quality of the photographs. The base colour is a dark brown and the gold highlights are not so coppery as shown. There is faint eyelash and both are backed with Herve's trade label No. 4.

In style the pair are very similar to Herve's work on glass and paper. In no way could the pair be by Field or Jefferson or other well-known artists using gold highlights on plaster. In view of this I think attribution would not present too much of a problem even without a label. There may well be works by Herve on plaster with a William Farthing label. I have illustrated below a work on plaster by Herve from the Book on page 648 illus. 1252, which is attributed to Farthing but shows Harve's typical outline. Also, below is the label from the back of the pair. Clearly neither has been out of its frame.