George Barbier (1882 - 1932) was one of the great
French illustrators of the early 20th century. Born in
Nantes,
Franceon October 10, 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.
Bérard ed il suo compagno Boris Kochno, che diresse i Balletti russi e co-fondò i Ballet des Champs-Elysées, fu uno dei più illustri omosessuali dichiarati in Francia durante glianni trenta e quaranta. Nacque a Parigi, studiò dapprima al Lycée Janson de Sailly e successivamente, nel 1920, entrò nell' Académie Ranson, dove subì le influenze delle tendenze coloristiche diÉdouard Vuillard e delle abilità grafiche di Maurice Denis.
