Art Deco - I

Louis Legrand 1863 – 1951
Leon Bakst 1866 -1924
Howard Christy 1872 – 1952
Norman Lindsay 1879 – 1969
Aleksandra Ekster 1882 – 1949
Jean Dupas 1882 – 1964
George Barbier 1882–1932
Paul Iribe 1883 – 1935
Zinaida Serebriakova 1884 – 1967

Art Deco

The Art Deco manifested across the spectrum of the visual arts: from architecture, painting, and sculpture to the graphic and decorative arts. While Art Deco practitioners were often paying homage to modernist influences such as Cubism, De Stijl, and Futurism, the references were indirect; it was as though they were taking the results of a few decades of distilling compositions to the most basic forms and inventing a new style that could be visually pleasing but not intellectually threatening.

Named after the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts held in Paris in 1925, Art Deco can be seen as a successor to and a reaction against Art Nouveau. Seen in furniture, pottery, textiles, jewelry, glass, etc. it was also a notable style of cinema and hotel architecture. Art Deco, similar to Art Nouveau, attempts to infuse functional objects with artistic touches.

Its chief difference from Art Nouveau is the influence of Cubism, which gives Art Deco design generally a more fragmented, geometric character. However, imagery based on plant forms and sinuous curves remained in some Art Deco design, for example, that of Clarice Cliff in Britain. Art Deco was highly varied in its influences, taking inspiration from ancient Egyptian art, Aztec, and other ancient Central American art, as well as from the design of modern ships, trains, and motor cars. It also drew on the modern architecture and design of the Bauhaus, and architects such as Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe.

With the advent of large-scale manufacturing, artists and designers wished to enhance the appearance of mass-produced functional objects - everything from clocks and ashtrays to cars and buildings. Art Deco's pursuit of beauty in all aspects of life was directly reflective of the relative newness and mass usage of machine-age technology rather than traditional crafting methods to produce many objects. The Bauhaus school was also interested in industrial production, but in a sense, The Bauhaus is the polar opposite as it refrained from artistic embellishments - preferring clean and simple geometric forms.

Louis Legrand
1863 – 1951

Louis Auguste Mathieu Legrand
(29 September 1863 – 1951) was a French artist, known especially for his aquatint engravings, which were sometimes erotic. He was awarded the Légion d'honneur for his work in 1906.
Legrand was born in the city of Dijon in the east of France. He worked as a bank clerk before deciding to study art part-time at Dijon's Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He won the Devosge prize at the school in 1883. In 1884 Legrand studied engraving under the Belgian printmaker Félicien Rops.

Legrand's artworks include etchings, graphic art and paintings. His paintings featured Parisian social life. Many were of prostitutes, dancers and bar scenes, which featured a sense of eroticism. According to the Hope Gallery, "Louis Legrand is simply one of France's finest early twentieth century masters of etching." His black and white etchings especially provide a sense of decadence; they have been compared to those of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, though his drawings of the Moulin Rouge, the can-can dance and the young women of Montmartre preceded Toulouse-Lautrec's paintings of similar scenes. He made over three hundred prints of the night life of Paris. They demonstrate "his remarkable powers of observation and are executed with great skill, delicacy, and an ironic sense of humor that pervades them all."

Two of his satirical artworks caused him to be tried for obscenity. The first, "Prostitution" was a symbolic drawing which depicted a naked girl being grasped by a dark monster which had the face of an old woman and claws on its hands; the second, "Naturalism", showed the French novelist Émile Zola minutely studying the thighs of a woman with a magnifying glass. Defended by his friend the lawyer Eugène Rodrigues-Henriques (1853–1928), he was found not guilty in the lower court, but was convicted in the appeal court and then given a short prison sentence for refusing to pay his fine.

Louis Legrand. Elégante à l'éventail, c. 1900

Louis Legrand. Le Cancan au bal Bullier, c. 1895

Louis Legrand. Désespoir

Louis Legrand. etching of young couple embracing in parlor

Louis Legrand. La Loge

Louis Legrand. Livry-Gargan: Paresseuse.

Louis Legrand. Cours de Danse

Louis Legrand. Paysage breton

Louis Legrand. Coquettierie (Femme au Miroir)

Louis Legrand. France

Louis Legrand. "Le Pochard"

Louis Legrand. La Toilette

Louis Legrand. La Toilette

Louis Legrand. "Le Deshabillage (Undressing)"

Louis Legrand. Mutter mit Kind.

Louis Legrand. „Baigneuse“.

Louis Legrand. La Toilette

Louis Legrand. La pause musicale

Louis Legrand. L’heure du thé

Louis Legrand. Untitlet.

Louis Legrand. LA DIVINE PAROLE

Louis Legrand. Le Livre d'Heures

Louis Legrand. DEVANT LA FENÊTRE

Louis Legrand. Le Cadre.

Louis Legrand. Ensemble de trois estampes

Leon Bakst
1866 -1924

Self-Portrait
1893

Léon Bakst

born January 27 [February 8, New Style], 1866, St. Petersburg, Russia
died December 28, 1924, Paris, France original name Lev Samoylovich Rosenberg Russian artist who revolutionized theatrical design both in scenery and in costume.

Bakst attended the Imperial Academy of Arts at St. Petersburg but was expelled after painting a too-realistic “Pietà.” He returned to Russia after completing his studies in Paris and became a court painter. He was a cofounder with Sergey Diaghilev of the journal Mir Iskusstva (“World of Art”) in 1899. Bakst began to design scenery in 1900, first at the Hermitage court theatre and then at the imperial theatres. In 1906 he went to Paris, where he began designing stage sets and costumes for Diaghilev's newly formed ballet company, the Ballets Russes. The first Diaghilev ballet for which he designed decor was Cléopâtre (1909), and he was chief set designer thereafter, working on the ballets Scheherazade and Carnaval (both 1910), Le Spectre de la rose and Narcisse (both 1911), L'Après-midi d'un faune and Daphnis et Chloé (both 1912), and Les Papillons (1914). Bakst achieved international fame with his sets and costumes, in which he combined bold designs and sumptuous colours with minutelyrefined details to convey an atmosphere of picturesque, exotic Orientalism. In 1919 Bakst settled permanently in Paris. His designs for a London production of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty in 1921 are regarded as his greatest work.

Coppelius y Coppelia

Elisium

Terror antiquus
1908

Set design for ballet "Schékhérazade"
1910

La sultane bleue
1910

Costume sketch for the ballet "Schékhérazade"

The Odalisque
1910
Costume sketch for the ballet "Schékhérazade"

Peri
1911
Costume sketch for ballet "Peri"

Iskander
1911
Costume sketch for ballet "Peri"

The Firebird
1913
Costume sketch for the ballet "L'Oiseau de Feu"

Costume pour Tamara Karsavina
1910
Costume sketch for the ballet "L'Oiseau de Feu"

The Firebird
1910
Costume sketch for the ballet "L'Oiseau de Feu"

Potiphar's Wife
1914
Costume sketch for the mime-drama "The Legend of Josef"

Set design for ballet "Cleopatra"
1909

Cleopatra
1909
Costume sketch for the ballet "Cleopatra"

Self-Portrait
1893

Bacchante
1911
Costume sketch for the ballet "Narcisse"

Set design for ballet "The Blue God"
1911

Howard Christy
1872 – 1952

Howard Chandler Christy (January 10, 1872 – March 3, 1952) was an American artist and illustrator. Famous for the "Christy Girl" – a colorful and illustrious successor to the "Gibson Girl" – Christy is also widely known for his iconic WWI military recruitment and Liberty loan posters, along with his 1940 masterpiece titled, Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States, which is installed along the east stairwell of the United States Capitol.

From the 1920s until the early 1950s, Christy was active as a portrait painter whose sitters included presidents, senators, industrialists, movies stars, and socialites. He painted Lt. Col. Theodore Roosevelt, and Presidents Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Harry Truman. Other famous people he painted include William Randolph Hearst, the Prince of Wales (Edward VIII), Eddie Rickenbacker, Benito Mussolini, Prince Umberto, and Amelia Earhart. By 1938, Time magazine proclaimed Christy "the most commercially successful U.S. artist."

Howard Chandler Christy. Self-Portrait with Model

Howard Chandler Christy. Halloween (1915)

Howard Chandler Christy. Official portrait of First Lady Grace Coolidge, 1924

Howard Chandler Christy. Happy Motoring (The Happy Ending) 1919

Howard Chandler Christy. On A Sand Dune, 1934

Howard Chandler Christy. Nude Wearing Pearls

Howard Chandler Christy. Nymphs in Summer, 1946

Howard Chandler Christy. Girl in Forest

Howard Chandler Christy. Gee I wish I were a Man, I'd Join the Navy, 1917

Howard Chandler Christy. AMERICANS ALL! VICTORY LIBERTY LOAN

Howard Chandler Christy. Fly for Her Liberty. 1943.

Howard Chandler Christy. Nudes

Howard Chandler Christy. Reclining Nude

Howard Chandler Christy. Reclining Nude.

Howard Chandler Christy. Nude with Jug.

Howard Chandler Christy. Pocahontas , 1926

Howard Chandler Christy. Elise, 1929

Howard Chandler Christy. Nude

Howard Chandler Christy. An Elegant Nude, 1934

Howard Chandler Christy. Triptych of Three Nudes, Hunting, Fencing, and Tambourine

Howard Chandler Christy. Nude on a Sofa, 1933

Howard Chandler Christy. Nude with Cat

CHRISTY _In the Garden of Eden_ 1925.jpg

Howard Chandler Christy. In the Garden of Eden 1925

Howard Chandler Christy. Portrait

Howard Chandler Christy. Portrait

Norman Lindsay
1879 – 1969

Norman Alfred William Lindsay (22 February 1879 – 21 November 1969) was an Australian artist, etcher, sculptor, writer, art critic, novelist, cartoonist and amateur boxer. One of the most prolific and popular Australian artists of his generation, Lindsay attracted both acclaim and controversy for his works, many of which infused the Australian landscape with erotic pagan elements and were deemed by his critics to be "anti-Christian, anti-social and degenerate". A vocal nationalist, he became a regular artist for The Bulletin at the height of its cultural influence, and advanced staunchly anti-modernist views as a leading writer on Australian art. When friend and literary critic Bertram Stevens argued that children like to read about fairies rather than food, Lindsay wrote and illustrated The Magic Pudding (1918), now considered a classic work of Australian children's literature.

Apart from his creative output, Lindsay was known for his larrikin attitudes and personal libertine philosophy, as well as his battles with what he termed "wowserism". One such battle is portrayed in the 1994 film Sirens, starring Sam Neill and filmed on location at Lindsay's home in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. It is now known as the Norman Lindsay Gallery and Museum and is maintained by the National Trust of Australia.

Norman Lindsay

Norman Lindsay

Norman Lindsay

Norman Lindsay

Norman Lindsay

Norman Lindsay

Norman Lindsay

Norman Lindsay

Norman Lindsay

Norman Lindsay

Norman Lindsay

Norman Lindsay

Norman Lindsay

Norman Lindsay

Norman Lindsay

Norman Lindsay

Norman Lindsay

Norman Lindsay

Norman Lindsay

Norman Lindsay

Norman Lindsay

Norman Lindsay

Norman Lindsay

Norman Lindsay

Norman Lindsay

Aleksandra Ekster
1882 – 1949

Aleksandra Aleksandrovna Ekster (18 January 1882 – 17 March 1949), also known as Alexandra Exter, was a Russian and French painter and designer.

As a young woman, her studio in Kiev attracted all the city's creative luminaries, and she became a figure of the Paris salons, mixing with Picasso, Braque and others. She is identified with the Russian/Ukrainian avant-garde, as a Cubo-futurist, Constructivist, and influencer of the Art Deco movement.

Alexandra Exter Cubist costumes for Salome.
1922

Alexandra Exter. Kamerny Theatre Curtain.
1922

Alexandra Exter Costume design for Romeo and Juliette 1921.jpg

Alexandra Exter. Sketch. 1924

Alexandra Exter Costume Design for the play "Famira Kifared" by Innokentiy Annenski. 1916

Alexandra Exter Costume design for "Dance of the Seven Veils"
1917

Alexandra Exter Costume design for Salome
1917

Alexandra Exter Costume for Romeo and Juliet
1920

Alexandra Exter Three Female Figures, 1910

Alexandra Exter Still Life, 1913

Jean Dupas
1882 – 1964

Jean Théodore Dupas
(21 February 1882 – 6 September 1964) was a French painter, artist, designer, poster artist, and decorator in the Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles.
Dupas was born in Bordeaux. He won the Prix de Rome for painting in 1910.

Dupas has worked in various exponents of the Nouveau and Deco areas, such as the fashion magazine Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. In 1925 at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris, he showed Les Perruches, one of his most famous oil on canvas. In 1927, with the aide of French printing house Draeger, he conceived a catalogue for the fur company Max.

In the 1930s, Dupas was commissioned by Frank Pick to produce the artwork for a series of posters for the underground network of London Transport.

Dupas expressed his predilection for large-scale projects: "The greater is my work, the happy I am." Thus his collaboration in the decor of famous steamships during the 1930s, emphasizing the Art Deco mode of the time. Among these works, the SS Île-de-France and the SS Liberté were among the first. But in 1935, with the help of glass master Champigneulle, he decorated the grand salon of the Normandie, in more than 400 square meters of painted and frosted glass.

He became a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1941.

La Femme à L'Ara
Jean Dupas
1921

Pomone (Mlle Marguerite Grain)
Jean Dupas
1923

Poster for XVme Salon des artistes decorateurs
Jean Dupas
1924

Bal des Étudiants Poster
Jean Dupas
1927

Le tricorne
Jean Dupas
1928

The Riding Crop
Jean Dupas
1928

Jean Dupas
An Allegory of Navigation., 1928

Femme à la coiffe
Jean Dupas
1929

Jean Dupas, (1882-1964), "Spring Fashions are here!," 1929

Jean Dupas
La Perle, 1929

Woman with Stole
Jean Dupas
1929

Jean Dupas
Untitled (Spanish Noble Woman Standing with Lutist), 1929

Jean-Théodore Dupas (1882-1964)
Couple avec Bouquet
1931

A Pair of Wall Panels
Jean Dupas
1935

Jean Dupas (French, 1882-1964), "Allegorie", 1937

Study for La Gloire de Bordeaux
Jean Dupas
1938

Bordeaux
Jean Dupas
1937

Jean Dupas (1882-1964) « Élégante et personnages »

JEAN DUPAS (188-1964) Woman with silk shawl posing by hat stand.

JEAN DUPAS (1882-1964) Portrait of woman with tropical bird.

JEAN DUPAS
(1882–1964)
Lady with birds, ca. 1930

JEAN-THÉODORE DUPAS | Portrait of a Woman

EAN DUPAS (1882-1964) Femme aux oiseaux

George Barbier
1882–1932

George Barbier
(1882–1932) was one of the great French illustrators of the early 20th century.
Born in Nantes, France on 16 October 1882, Barbier was 29 years old when he mounted his first exhibition in 1911 and was subsequently swept to the forefront of his profession with commissions to design theatre and ballet costumes, to illustrate books, and to produce haute couture fashion illustrations.

For the next 20 years Barbier led a group from the Ecole des Beaux Arts who were nicknamed by Vogue "The Knights of the Bracelet"—a tribute to their fashionable and flamboyant mannerisms and style of dress. Included in this élite circle were Bernard Boutet de Monvel and Pierre Brissaud (both of whom were Barbier's first cousins), Paul Iribe, Georges Lepape, and Charles Martin.

During his career Barbier also turned his hand to jewellery, glass and wallpaper design, wrote essays and many articles for the prestigious Gazette du bon ton. In the mid-1920s he worked with Erté to design sets and costumes for the Folies Bergère and in 1929 he wrote the introduction for Erté's acclaimed exhibition and achieved mainstream popularity through his regular appearances in L'Illustration magazine.

Barbier died in 1932 at the very pinnacle of his success. He is buried in Cemetery Miséricorde, Nantes

George Barbier

George Barbier

George Barbier

George Barbier

George Barbier

George Barbier

George Barbier

George Barbier

George Barbier

George Barbier

George Barbier

George Barbier

George Barbier

George Barbier

George Barbier

Paul Iribe
1883 – 1935

Paul Poiret
(20 April 1879 – 30 April 1944, Paris, France) was a French fashion designer, a master couturier during the first two decades of the 20th century. He was the founder of his namesake haute couture house.
“I could smell what the spirit of the moment was” and began receiving different artists at home to “create an art movement around him,” explained in the autobiography he wrote in the 1930s. From Constantin Brancusi, Kees van Dongen, Robert Delaunay, André Derain, Raoul Dufy, Paul Iribe, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani or Pablo Picasso, Poiret surrounded himself with artists, designers and architects that would help him develop and promote his work. It was due to these collaborations that he realized that fashion could also be a lifestyle that ranged from furniture to home accessories, influencing the 1910s aesthetics beyond the realms of fashion.

One of the most fruitful relations was with Paul Iribe, who was given total freedom to illustrate his designs and that catapulted both of them. His highly stylized, decorative, and colourful images not only fit perfectly into Poiret’s style, but also provided Art Decó with the basis of his visual language.

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Paul Poiret and model

1Paul_Poiret_sultana_skirts_and_harem_pants_fashions,_1911.jpg

Poiret harem pants and sultana skirts, 1911

Model in a Poiret suit, 1914

1Paul_Poiret_and_his_wife_Denise_at_a_party_on_june_24.jpg

Paul Poiret and his wife at 'The 1002nd Night' fancy-dress ball, in which guests were expected to dress in Orientalist fashion

1Paul-Poiret-coat-inspired-by-Japanese-kimono-dresses.jpg

Model in a Poiret dress

Model in a Poiret dress

Model in a Poiret dress

Art pour Fashion: Paul Iribe pour Paul Poiret

Paul Iribe (8 June 1883 – 21 September 1935) was a French illustrator and designer in the decorative arts. He worked in Hollywood during the 1920s and was Coco Chanel's lover from 1931 to his death.