Trocadero (a.k.a. Echafaudage; Front Populaire or The Pier) by Roger Vieillard

Trocadero (a.k.a. Echafaudage; Front Populaire or The Pier) by Roger Vieillard

Trocadero (a.k.a. Echafaudage; Front Populaire or The Pier)

Roger Vieillard

Title

Trocadero (a.k.a. Echafaudage; Front Populaire or The Pier)

 
Artist
Year
1936  
Technique
engraving 
Image Size
9 3/8 x 14 7/8" platemark 
Signature
pencil, lower right 
Edition Size
3 of 40  
Annotations
pencil titled 
Reference
Hacker 24; Austin/Desmond catalogue 101 
Paper
buff Montval laid, with watermark 
State
published 
Publisher
artist, at Atelier 17 
Inventory ID
16207 
Price
SOLD
Description

This important, scarce surreal engraving was done by Vieillard while working at Atelier 17 in Paris in the 1930s. Though not an official member of the Surrealists Vieillard knew many of them, including Atelier 17 founder Stanley William Hayter. Though he never officially identified with the Surrealists he was open to many of their ideas, not their internal politics.

In 1936 Vieillard began a series of burin engravings featuring classical architecture, often depicting the destruction and collapse of these institutional symbols. In this image, a single figure stands atop the old Palais du Trocadéro concert hall in Paris during its demolition. The Palais du Trocadero was built in Paris in 1878 to commemorate the 1823 battle in which France helped restore the throne to King Ferdinand VII of Spain. The exterior of the structure is covered with scaffolding, the figure leans on a makeshift railing. In 1937 the concert hall was replaced by the Palais de Chaillot in the Trocadero. The Eiffel Tower rises out of the clouds in the distance.

Vieillard's work was represented in the important 1944 exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in New York titled Hayter and Studio 17: New Directions in Gravure which included 60 prints by 32 artists from 12 nations.