French (1880-1950) Louis Icart was born in Toulouse, France. He began drawing at an early age. He was particularly interested in fashion, and became famous for his sketches almost immediately. He worked for major design studios at a time when fashion was undergoing a radical change-from the fussiness of the late nineteenth century to the simple, clingy lines of the early twentieth century. He was first son of Jean and Elisabeth Icart and was officially named Louis Justin Laurent Icart. The use of his initials L.I. would be sufficient in this household. Therefore, from the moment of his birth he was dubbed 'Helli'. The Icart family lived modestly in a small brick home on rue Traversi??re-de-la-balance, in the culturally rich Southern French city of Toulouse, which was the home of many prominent writers and artists, the most famous being Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Icart fought in World War I. He relied on his art to stem his anguish, sketching on every available surface. It was not until his move to Paris in 1907 that Icart would concentrate on painting, drawing and the production of countless beautiful etchings, which have served (more than the other mediums) to indelibly preserve his name in twentieth century art history. When he returned from the front he made prints from those drawings. The prints, most of which were aquatints and drypoints, showed great skill. Because they were much in demand, Icart frequently made two editions (one European, the other American) to satisfy his public. These prints are considered rare today, and when they are in mint condition they fetch high prices at auction. Art Deco, a term coined at the 1925 Paris Exposition des Arts Decoratifs, had taken its grip on the Paris of the 1920s. By the late 1920s Icart, working for both publications and major fashion and design studios, had become very successful, both artistically and financially. His etchings reached their height of brilliance in this era of Art Deco, and Icart had become the symbol of the epoch. Yet, although Icart has created for us a picture of Paris and New York life in the 1920s and 1930s, he worked in his own style, derived principally from the study of eighteenth-century French masters such as Jean Antoine Watteau, François Boucher and Jean Honor?? Fragonard. In Icart's drawings, one sees the Impressionists Degas and Monet and, in his rare watercolors, the Symbolists Odilon Redon and Gustave Moreau. In fact, Icart lived outside the fashionable artistic movements of the time and was not completely sympathetic to contemporary art. Nonetheless, his Parisian scenes are a documentation of the life he saw around him and they are nearly as popular today as when they were first produced. In 1914 Icart had met a magical, effervescent eighteen-year-old blonde named Fanny Volmers, at the time an employee of the fashion house Paquin. She would eventually become his wife and a source of artistic inspiration for the rest of his life.   Related Paintings of Louis Lcart :. | Naughty cat | Vehicle | Overture | Social Topics | Butterfly cents |
Related Artists:
Joseph Heintz
1564-1609 Swiss Painter, draughtsman, architect and artistic adviser, son of Daniel Heintz. He began his training as a painter c. 1579 with Hans Bock I (c. 1550-c. 1623) in Basle. His first surviving drawings (1580) show something akin to Holbein manner in his stained-glass window designs. After completing his apprenticeship he went c. 1584 to Rome, where he studied the works of antiquity, and those of Raphael, Michelangelo, Polidoro da Caravaggio and others. In 1587 he went via Florence to Venice, absorbing the works of Tintoretto, Titian and Veronese. In autumn 1591 the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II summoned him as portraitist and court painter to Prague but soon sent him back to Italy, where he drew ancient statues in addition to producing his own work and acting as art agent for the Emperor. In 1592-5 he stayed mainly in Rome, then returned to Prague. In the following years he worked indefatigably as a draughtsman, painter, architect and artistic adviser, moving between Augsburg and Prague.
BACKHUYSEN, Ludolf
Dutch Baroque Era Painter, ca.1631-1708 Ludolf Backhuysen (or Bakhuizen) (Dec 28, 1630 - Nov 17, 1708) was a Dutch painter, born in Emden, Hanover. Bakhuysen started his career as a bookkeeper. He had a very nice handwriting and loved arithmetic. Working for a wealthy merchant at Amsterdam, he discovered so strong a genius for painting that he relinquished the business and devoted himself to art. He studied first under Allart van Everdingen and then under Hendrik Dubbels, two eminent masters of the time, and soon became celebrated for his sea-pieces. He was an ardent student of nature, and frequently exposed himself on the sea in an open boat in order to study the effects of storms. His compositions, which are numerous, are nearly all variations of one subject, the sea, and in a style peculiarly his own, marked by intense realism or faithful imitation of nature. In his later years Backhuysen employed his skills in etching and calligraphy. During his life Backhuysen was visited by Cosimo III de' Medici and Peter the Great. In 1699 he opened a gallery on the topfloor of the famous Amsterdam townhall. After a visit to England he died in Amsterdam on November 17, 1708.
Nahl, Charles Christian
German-born American Painter, 1818-1878 later known as Charles Nahl, Karl Nahl, Charles Christian Nahl or Charles C. Nahl, was a German-born painter who is called California's first significant artist.He came from a long line of artists and sculptors and was trained at the Cassel Academy. Unease over the political state of Hesse led him and his friend Frederick August Wenderoth (1819-1884) to Paris in 1846, where "Charles" enjoyed some success at the salon. The February Revolution prompted another move with his half-brother Hugo Wilhelm Arthur Nahl (1833-1889) to Brooklyn, New York, where they heard of the gold strike. They had no luck along the Yuba River but opened a studio with Wenderoth in Sacramento