Hermine David - Workers - Original Etching 1946

Hermine David - Workers - Original Etching Paris, Le Gerbier, 1946 Edition of 340 Hermine David (1886-1970), painter and printmaker, was born in Paris on April 19, 1886. She was the granddaughter of the French painter Jacques Louis David. At the age of sixteen she enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts and later studied at l’Académie Julian. She became a regular exhibitor at the Salon des Femmes Peintres and Sculpteurs and was a member of the School of Paris artists' group. The Bulgarian artist Jules Pascin, known as the Prince of Montparnasse, was also a member and, after meeting in 1907, they became companions living in studios in Montparnasse and Montmartre. David followed Pascin to the United States. They left New York in the winter of 1915 and lived briefly in New Orleans, Charleston, and Tampa before returning to New York in 1917 where they married in a civil ceremony the following year. She returned to Paris in 1920, divorced from Pascin, and found a studio for herself in Montmartre. David worked in watercolor, drypoint and lithography and turned to book illustration in the 1920s illustrating works by notable authors including Proust, Byron, and Verlaine. In 1922, she had her first solo exhibition at Galerie Berthe Weill and she received the Legion of Honor award in 1932. Her works are in numerous museums including the Tate Gallery in London and the Musée du Luxembourg. David remained active as an artist until 1965. She died on December 1, 1970 in Bry-sur-Marne, France.