Works on Paper by GRATALOUP | Drawings and Prints

WORKS ON PAPER

DRAWINGS — GRAPHITE AND WATERCOLOUR

For GRATALOUP, everything begins with drawing. He often repeated, adapting a phrase by Ingres in his own way: “Drawing is the integrity of painting.”

From childhood, when he was already drawing the fir trees and the lake surrounding his home in Nantua, through his travels and his work in the studio, everything became a subject for drawing. From the 1980s onwards in particular, his drawings became increasingly elaborate and closer to his painting practice. Some were reworked in India ink, while others incorporated materials also found in his paintings: sand, brass wire and layers of paint, combined with graphite or watercolour.

Studies, landscapes, explorations or moments captured over the years, these works on paper, some of which are undated, form a drawn record of the painter’s life. The drawings presented here represent only part of this body of work, which is gradually being documented and incorporated into the catalogue raisonné.

SURFER WITH CHROMATIC WAVE
2017

BEACH
2009

GRATALOUP — india ink drawing of Belle-Île island

INDIA INK DRAWING OF BELLE-ÎLE ISLAND
1977

TWO TREES

THE COUPLE

BORIE

WOMAN IN THE PARASOL

FIELDS
1998
— Private collection —

TORRENT IN VAL D'ISÈRE
1980
— Private collection —

PRINTS
1976
— Private collection —

GRATALOUP — Journey Through the Mountain

JOURNEY THROUGH THE MOUNTAIN
1974
— Private collection —

MOUNTAIN LANDSCAPE
1966
— Private collection —

MODEL
— Private collection —

STORMY WEATHER
2012

MARITIME LANDSCAPE
2004

WAVES

RISE

BORIE WITH RED RAY

ANAMORPHOSIS

SEA

WAVE FROTTAGE
1998
— Private collection —

SALVINIA AURICULATA
1978
— Private collection —

SCEAUTRES MOUNTAIN
1975
— Private collection —

HEARTS TREE
1973
— Private collection —

DRAWING AND COLLAGE
— Private collection —

FLOWERS
— Private collection —

SYMBOLIC MOUNTAIN
2011

STARRY SURF
1995

BELLE-ILE ISLAND

NUDE ON THE ISLAND

NUDES ON SAND

NUDE IMPRINT

MILENA
2008
— Private collection —

SCEAUTES ROCK - FROTTAGE
1986
— Private collection —

UNTITLED
1977
— Private collection —

VEGETAL
1975
— Private collection —

PALMTREE IN V
1972–1974
— Private collection —

BRIDGE ON THE SEA
— Private collection —

WATERCOLOR MOUNTAIN
— Private collection —

MAGICAL MOUNTAIN
2011

THE CRADDLE
1994

EMERGENT ROCK

RUNNING ON THE SAND

SURF

NUDE ON SEA

EROS CACTII
1999
— Private collection —

UNTITLED
1980
— Private collection —

GRATALOUP — Bories drawing, framed under glass

BORIES DRAWING, FRAMED UNDER GLASS
1976
— Private collection —

EDEN GARDEN
1975
— Private collection —

STUDIES FOR A COLUMN — 1968
1968
— Private collection —

FIR TREE LANDSCAPE
— Private collection —

PERIGORD DUROC SIDE
— Private collection —

Frottages

From the 1970s onwards, GRATALOUP created each year a small-format matrix intended for his New Year cards. From this matrix, he produced a limited series of frottages, which he sent to friends and collectors for the New Year. Although produced from the same matrix, these frottages are all different. GRATALOUP varied the colours from one work to another and individually altered some of them by adding materials or collaged elements such as sand, flowers, leaves or other materials.

Each frottage is therefore a unique work, originating from the same motif but distinguished by the artist’s individual choices and interventions.

The earliest examples identified to date are from 1975. These small-format works make it possible to follow, year after year, the evolution of GRATALOUP’s graphic and symbolic vocabulary and form a distinctive body of work within his oeuvre.

For this presentation, only one example of each motif has been selected and catalogued, in order to document the different matrices and their evolution without reproducing all the variations created from the same motif.

THE ORIENTAL DREAM
2012
— Private collection —

GRATALOUP — Blue Frottage – Blue Flower, Flower Woman Series

BLUE FROTTAGE – BLUE FLOWER, FLOWER WOMAN SERIES
2000
— Private collection —

SANS TITRE
1998
— Private collection —

FROTTAGE – WILLOW LEAVES
1993
— Private collection —

GRATALOUP — Frottage series erotic paradise

FROTTAGE SERIES EROTIC PARADISE
1987
— Private collection —

BLUE FROTTAGE
1985
— Private collection —

GRATALOUP — Frottage – Awakening of the Mineral

FROTTAGE – AWAKENING OF THE MINERAL
1984
— Private collection —

GRATALOUP — Vegetal frottage - invitation card Herodiade gallery

VEGETAL FROTTAGE - INVITATION CARD HERODIADE GALLERY
1978
— Private collection —

FROTTAGE WATER LILIES
1975
— Private collection —

GRATALOUP — A Leaf from the Painting Homage to Monet

A LEAF FROM THE PAINTING HOMAGE TO MONET
1969
— Private collection —

LEAF COMPOSITION – FROTTAGE
2004
— Private collection —

GRATALOUP — Green frottage – Flower Woman Series

GREEN FROTTAGE – FLOWER WOMAN SERIES
2000
— Private collection —

GRATALOUP — Yellow frottage desert series

YELLOW FROTTAGE DESERT SERIES
1997
— Private collection —

GRATALOUP — Frottage – Rock with Monkeys

FROTTAGE – ROCK WITH MONKEYS
1992
— Private collection —

GRATALOUP — Blue and Brown Frottage – Awakening of the Mineral

BLUE AND BROWN FROTTAGE – AWAKENING OF THE MINERAL
1986
— Private collection —

GRATALOUP — Blue Frottage – The Mountain of Icarus’ Leap

BLUE FROTTAGE – THE MOUNTAIN OF ICARUS’ LEAP
1985
— Private collection —

GRATALOUP — Frottage – Awakening of the Mineral II

FROTTAGE – AWAKENING OF THE MINERAL II
1984
— Private collection —

FROTTAGE MINERAL AWAKENING
1977
— Private collection —

WATER LILIES FROTTAGE
1975
— Private collection —

HEART BIRD
2002
— Private collection —

GRATALOUP — Red frottage – Palm Trees Series at the Villa Medici

RED FROTTAGE – PALM TREES SERIES AT THE VILLA MEDICI
1998
— Private collection —

FROTTAGE FIRETREES
1994
— Private collection —

FROTTAGE MOUNTAIN
1991
— Private collection —

GRATALOUP — Full-Scale Fragment – Awakening of the Mineral Cartoon – Créteil Mosaic

FULL-SCALE FRAGMENT – AWAKENING OF THE MINERAL CARTOON – CRÉTEIL MOSAIC
1986
— Private collection —

GRATALOUP — Yellow and Red Frottage – The Mountain of Icarus’ Leap

YELLOW AND RED FROTTAGE – THE MOUNTAIN OF ICARUS’ LEAP
1985
— Private collection —

FROTTAGE – MOSQUE WALL
1980
— Private collection —

FROTTAGE MINERAL AWAKENING
1977
— Private collection —

HEART FROTTAGE
1974
— Private collection —

GRATALOUP — Black and yellow Frottage – The Ark of the Covenant

BLACK AND YELLOW FROTTAGE – THE ARK OF THE COVENANT
2001
— Private collection —

GREEN WAVE FROTTAGE
1998
— Private collection —

RUBBING FIR TREES
1993
— Private collection —

GRATALOUP — Frottage – Island Series: Awakening of the Mineral

FROTTAGE – ISLAND SERIES: AWAKENING OF THE MINERAL
1989
— Private collection —

GRATALOUP — Full-Scale Fragment – Awakening of the Mineral Cartoon

FULL-SCALE FRAGMENT – AWAKENING OF THE MINERAL CARTOON
1986
— Private collection —

RYE FROTTAGE
1984
— Private collection —

VEGETAL FROTTAGE
1978
— Private collection —

FROTTAGE MINERAL AWAKENING
1977
— Private collection —

FROTTAGE – TORN HEART
1973
— Private collection —

LITHOGRAPHS, SCREEN PRINTS AND ENGRAVING

GRATALOUP produced only a small number of lithographs and screen prints during his career. These works therefore form a limited body of work within his practice, alongside painting, drawing and rubbing, which played a much more significant role.

Produced in limited editions, GRATALOUP’s lithographs and screen prints are numbered, dated and signed by the artist.

They reflect GRATALOUP’s occasional exploration of printmaking techniques and transpose onto paper some of the forms and artistic investigations that run throughout his work