Howet, A La Source d’Ara.

Howet, A La Source d'Ara.

Howet, Marie. A La Source d’Ara: épopée accompagnée de vingt-cinq aquarelles D’Irlande. Par Marie Howet. Preface de Stephen Gwynn. Limited Edition. Number 85 of 125 Copies. Signed by the Artist. [Paris], Duclos et Colas, 1934. Oblong Folio. 30 x 40 cm. Unnumbered text pages with elegantly designed text printed in Black & Green. Various B&W Illustrations, incl. a Map of Ireland and 25 fine full page pochoir plates executed by Jean Saude after artwork by Marie Howet; with the original tissue guards. Signed and numbered (85) by Marie Howitt on the limitation page. Includes a loosely inserted broadside printing in French of a letter to Marie Howet the artist and author of the book when it came out, from Seamus Mac Call, the author of ‘And So Began the Irish Nation’. Original glassine wrapped stiff printed paper covers; housed in original board chemise with black spine and paper covered boards. Front board decorated (see images). In original black slip case. Very good condition. Minor shelf wear. Some wear to slip case, glassine wrapper and a few of the tissue guards. Internally bright and clean. A very nice copy of this beautifully decorated book.

Marie Howet (1897 – 1984) was a Belgian expressionist painter and illustrator.
Marie Françoise Céline Howet was born in Libramont, daughter of Constant Howet, a doctor, and Pauline Thiry. She received a musical education and learned drawing, attending school in Arlon. Originally, she planned to study music but instead chose art and enrolled at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. Here she studied under Constant Montald. In her first year she received several prizes, but the outbreak of the First World War led to her family’s exile in France. In 1915 she enrolled in the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. After the war she returned to Belgium and set up a studio at Rochehaut, near Bouillon, later moving to Saint Gilles. In 1922, aged 25, she won the Belgian Prix de Rome, organised by Belgian arts minister Jules Destrée, for her Devant la maison à Rochehaut. Her works received critical acclaim and several prizes for her work. She travelled and exhibited frequently abroad, illustrating collections of poetry on Greece, Turkey, Ireland, and Italy. She died on her 87th birthday at Libramont.