Paul Bilhaud

Paul Bilhaud (31 December 1854 – 8 January 1933) was a French playwright and librettist. An old friend of the author Alphonse Allais, he is remembered along his friend as a forerunner of minimalism with his painting Combat de nègres dans un tunnel ("(Negroes fight in a tunnel)"), displayed for the first time in 1882, more than thirty years before the « Black Square » by Kazimir Malevich [1] However, Bilhaud was not the first to create an all-black artwork: for example, Robert Fludd published an image of "Darkness" in his 1617 book on the origin and structure of the cosmos; and Bertall published his black Vue de La Hogue (effet de nuit) in 1843.) Inspired by Bilhaud, Alphonse Allais proposed other monochrome paintings, published in his Album primo-avrilesque in 1897.

Paul Bilhaud
Born	31 December 1854 Bruère-Allichamps (Cher)
Died	8 January 1933(1933-01-08) (aged 78) Avon (Seine-et-Marne)
Occupation	Playwright, librettist

Works

Theatre

• La Première Querelle, domestic scene, éditions Barbré, 1881, a play created at the Théâtre du Gymnase, 1 September 1881.
• La Soirée du seize, comedy de salon in one act, éditions Librairie théâtrale, 1884.
• Première ivresse (in collaboration with Julien Berr de Turique) créée à l’Odéon, 22 September 1885.
• Bigame, comedy in three acts (in collaboration with Albert Barré), éditions Librairie théâtrale, 1886.
• La Courtisane de Corinthe (in collaboration with Michel Carré).
• Ma Bru ! (in collaboration with Michel Carré), performed at the Théâtre de l'Odéon in 1898.
• Le Gant, comedy in one act (in collaboration with Maurice Hennequin), éditions P.-V. Stock, 1905.
• L’Âme des héros, (in collaboration with Michel Carré) one-act play in verses, created at the Comédie-Française, 6 June 1907.
• L'École des bavards ou Parler, scene in three periods, éditions Georges Ondet, 1919.
• La Douche, comedy de salon, played by Coquelin cadet and Melle Scellier, éditions Librairie Théâtrale, 1884.
• Gustave !, comedy de salon in one act
• Heureuse !, comedy in three acts (in collaboration with Maurice Hennequin) [2]
• La Famille Boléro, play in three acts
• Les Espérances, comedy in one act, in prose, Paris, Théâtre du Vaudeville, 2 September 1885
• J’attends Ernest, comedy in one act, in prose, Paris, Théâtre du Palais-Royal, 11 April 1885
• Le Papillon, comedy in one act, in verses

Librettos

• La Soubrette, operetta in one act, with Quénéhen and Rambaud (Asnières, 6 July 1891)
• Un mariage à bout portant, operetta in one act, with Remy, music by Cieutat (Scala, 16 February 1892)
• Toto, operetta in three acts, with Albert Barré, music by Antoine Banès (Théâtre des Menus-Plaisirs, 10 June 1892)
• Madame Rose, opera-comique in one act, with Albert Barré, music by Antoine Banès (Opéra-Comique, 25 September 1893)
• Nos bons chasseurs, vaudeville in three acts, with Michel Carré fils, music by Charles Lecocq (Nouveau Théâtre, 10 April 1894)
• Le Roi Frelon, operetta in three acts, with Albert Barré, music by d'Antoine Banès (Théâtre des Folies-Dramatiques, 11 April 1895)
• La Tourte, operetta in one act, music by Gaston Serpette (Asnières, 8 February 1895)
• La Jarretière, operetta in one act, with Albert Barré, music by Antoine Banès (Eldorado, 29 April 1897)
• La Fiancée du trombone à coulisse, fairly joyous symphonologue, music by Émile Pessard

Tableaux

• 1882 : "Combat de nègres dans un tunnel"

References

Notes

1. Danto 2005, p. 251.
2. Read on line

Bibliography

• Danto, Artur C. (2005). Unnatural Wonders or Essays from the Gap Between Art and Life. ISBN 978-0-374-28118-2.

External links

• Read on line on Gallica