Stefan Albl, Anaïs Bérenger, Gabriel Belot (1882-1962). Painter, Engraver, Poet, Roma, 2019 ( Artemide publishing house, 368 pages, 242 colour illustrations )

Born in 1882 to a National print worker family, Gabriel Belot developed very early a passion for printed book art and aesthetism
and a keen interest in engraving on wood of which he will be one of the major exhibitors of his generation.

Active in Paris in the first half of the 20th century, friend of renowned artists and intellectuals such as Théophile Alexandre Steinlen, Noël Clément-Janin, Han Ryner and Romain Rolland, Gabriel Belot exposed regularly his works at the Salon des Indépendants, the Salon d’Automne and the Société de la Gravure sur Bois Originale.
In 1917, he achieved his first success with “Île Saint Louis”, an entirely illustrated art book designed by himself from writing to print. At the end of the 1930’s, the artist settled in Provence, in Méounes les Montrieux, where he lived in full communion with nature, finding his own inner peace and happiness after the tough Parisian years.
Artist who fell into oblivion after the beginning of the recognition made by Marc Elder (1927) and Camille Mauclair (1930), this monograph was born by means of a donation of thousands of documents received at the Toulon Municipal Archives in 2016.
The two authors, therefore had the opportunity to explore the still unpublished material of the Gabriel Belot collection and to gather a large number of works present in public and private collections in order to obtain the first ever complete artist profile and the multiple aspects of his art in engraving, painting and poetry.

More about the authors :

• Anaïs Bérenger, art historian and heritage restorer specializing in graphic and book arts, trained at the University of Aix-en-Provence and at the Instituto Centrale per il Restauro e la Conservazione del Patrimonio Archivistico e Librario in Roma.
  She has collaborated with the Bibliotheca Hertziana and the Instituto Centrale per la Grafica in Roma, as part of exhibitions and loans.
• Stefan Albl, art historian, trained at the University of Vienna (Austria). He has worked in various institutions including the Fondazione di Studi Roberto Longhi in Florence, the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Roma and the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts in Washington DC. He teaches the history of Italian and French Art of the 16th and 17th centuries at the University of Vienna

Gabriel Belot, L’Atelier de l’artiste (Le graveur), 1916, colour woodcut printing, print 10/15, 235 x 190 mm, Paris, Estampes Martinez

Visuals highlighted: Gabriel Belot, La maison de Balzac, 1914, wood engraving, print on Japan paper 8/10, 425 x 283 mm, Paris, Collin Estampes