T𝄹 he son of Belgian playwright Fernand Crommelynck, Aldo Crommelynck (1931-2008) displayed an innate talent as a draughtsman from an early age. In the late 1940s, together with his brothers Piero and Milan, the young Crommelynck arrived at the studio of renowned printmaker Roger Lacourière where he would train as an apprentice learning 19th century classical French intaglio printmaking techniques. Here the brothers remained until 1955, during which time Crommelynck’s work caught the eye of several artists who frequented the studio, among them, Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró.
By the time of the Crommelynck brothers, printmaking had already enjoyed an illu🏅strious history in Europe. Following the legacy of intaglio printmakers before them, such as Lacourière, Jaques Frélaut, and Robert Dutrou, Crommelynck, would become a collaborative partner and friend to many of the great 20th century artists.

The Picasso Years
Just a fresh-faced apprentice, Picasso first noticed Crommelynck’s precocious talent for innovation when he was asked to rework an engraving of Crâne de chèvre sur la table – a reproduction of Picasso’s gouache. While Picasso had felt Lacourière’s outlines were too soft, Crommelynck invigorated the white hue꧒s by using white ink rather than leaving a blank space as Lacourière had done, a move that caught Picas𒁏so’s attention. Together with his brothers, Crommelynck soon became Picasso’s preferred printmaker.

In 1956, at 23 years of age, Crommelynck left Lacourière’s workshop, setting up his own with his brothers and Robert Dutrou. Less than a decade later, Crommelynck moved to Mougins in 1963 to be nearer to Picasso who was living at the villa Notre-Dame de Vie at the time. It became a period of prolific output with an extraordinary production of prints, including proofs, variations and repetitions. The Route de Cuivre (Copper Road) became the nickname for the well-worn route between Picasso's house and the former bakery where Crommelynck’s studio was set up. This path was a busy byway for Cromme🦩lynck, the proximity allowed forꦯ frequent and almost real-time edits in consultation with Picasso during this intense, collaborative period.
Picasso demanded particularly high technical capabilities, both because of the volume and his love of experimentation. Picasso created etchings and aquatint, occasionally adopting both of these techniques and drypoint within a single design. In Mougins, he experimented w🌺ith crayon over aquatint, and various varnishes, grease and intaglio tools. Such were Picasso’s high standards that reaching the stage of bon à tirer – the first perfect print which became the standard for all subsequent prints of that edition – demanded all of Crommelynck’s technical expertise.
The Crommelynck brothers became Picasso's exclusive printers until his death in 1973. The decade at Mougins included some of Picasso’s most frenetic output and saw some 750 plates produced and nearly 30,000 impressions printed. Among the notable works include the series Le Peintre et son modèle, the illustrations for the play Le Cocu le Magnifique, and the series Les Fumeurs, Les Etreintes, and Suite 347.

Suite 156, Picasso's last engraved artistic testament, was completed in 1972 when the artist was 90 years old and dedicated to the engravings of Old Masters who had influenced and shaped his style as a printmaker. Unflinching and voyeuristic in its portrayals of male figures and mythical creatures in acts of indecency and depravity, Suite 156 was a shock to visitors at Louise Leiris Gallery, where the work was first exhibited in 1973. “I have less and less time, and more and more things to say,” said the artist. In both subject matter and the unrestrained use of printing techniques, Suite 156 embodied the provocative freedom that had marked the artist’♒s work for decades, the spirit of which was all encapsulated in this final legacy he left behind to the world.
Printmaker to the Stars
A fter Picasso’s death, Crommelynck returned to Paris, where he was at last able to dedicate more time to work with other artists. Picasso had not always been his sole focus; Crommelynck also worked with Miró and Henri Matisse – notably on the latter’s aquatint series Visages (1946-1952) – as well as Georges Bra🌌ques, Le Corbusier, Alberto G💧iacometti, André Masson, Zao Wou-Ki, Jeap Arp and Marino Marini.
One of the first new clients after his return to Paris was London-born painter Richard Hamilton, who sought out the master printmaker for his etchings. As Hamilton said: “About the time that Picasso died, I took over in Crommelynck’s affections and worked with him a great deal, and we were very close friends.” Hamilton had been invited by German publisher Propylaën Verlag in 1973 to take part in the “Homage to Picasso” portfolio. Together with Crommelynck, he reinterpreted Les Ménines by Velázquez, which Picasso had greatly admired.
Discover Prints by Joan Miró, Georges Braque and Richard Hamilton
Transatlantic Fame from Paris to New York
During his time collaborating with Picasso, Crommelynck al💖so already had a following from America – artists who wished to have prints made in a French atelier. These included George Condo, David Salle, and Terry Winters, amඣong others. But it was following Picasso’s death and his return to Paris that Crommelynck’s atelier attracted the attention of such artists as David Hockney, Jim Dine and Jasper Johns.
Jim Dine’s affections for Paris are immortalised in his four etchings Paris Smiles, Paris Smiles in Darkness, Retroussage Eiffel Tower, and Drypoint Eiffel Tower (all 1976), as well as the etching and aquatint The Heart Called Paris Spring (1982). “He taught me everything𒁏 I know a🍰bout etching,” Dine said of Crommelynck, with whom he made more than 100 prints.
Jasper Johns experimented with various kinds of printmaking techniques, including large-format lithographs and screenprinting. His collaborations with Crommelynck, with such works as Untitled I (Field 213), Target with Plaster Casts (ULAE 208), and Untitled (Yellow) and Untitled (Blue) (ULAE 225-26) are celebrated for it🍌s contribution to the revival of printmaking in Ame𒊎rican art.
Discover Prints by Jasper Johns and Jim Dine
Crommelynck’s popularity with pre-eminent American artists was such that the Whitney Museum in New York titled a 1989 exhibition “Aldo Crommelynck: Master Prints with American Artists.” Some of the artists he knew painted his portrait, for example Romanian-French artist Avigdor Arikha in 1984 and American multimedia artist Red Grooms in 1994. Red Grooms had partnered with Crommelynck in 1985 on the etching and aquatint of the famous Parisian restaurant Les Deux Magots.
David Hockney, currently the subject of a retrospective at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris until 31 August, also worked with Crommelynck when he was living in Paris from 1973 to 1975. The new techniques that Hockney learned at this time underscored the opportunities for mutual learning that abounded between artist and printmaker. Hockney learned colour etching using a single plate as well as the “sugar lift.” This involved a direct application to the etching plate of a sugar and gouache solution, affording a more painterly spontaneity. Hockney worked with Crommelynck to reinterpret works by Picasso, particularly from the Peintre et son Modèle series.
In 1986, Crommelynck moved to New Y𝔉ork in an exclusive collaboration with Pace Wildenstein Gallery. This period led to his working with Swedish-American sculptor Claes Oldenburg, and artists Dan Flavin and Robert Morris. His reputation was global, and his highly acclaimed, pioneering skills were rewarde♏d with the Grand Prix National des Métiers d'Art in 1989. Crommelynck retired from printmaking in 1998 and returned to France. Inextricably linked with Paris and the great artists that flocked there throughout the 20th century, Crommelynck passed away in Paris on 22 December 2008, aged 76. He remains in art history as the most celebrated printmaker of the second half of the 20th century. Aside from sometimes adopting rudimentary techniques he developed himself, Crommelynck also built his own presses taking parts from older 19th century machines. So renowned is Crommelynck’s self-made printing presses that one used to make Picasso’s prints has been on display at the Museo Picasso Malaga for many years, while two of his printing presses from his time in America are still in daily use: one in the Wingate Studio in New Hampshire and the other in the Mixit Print Studio in Massachusetts.