Louis ICART French, 1888-1950

Louis Icart at work

 

 

Brilliant illustrator, whose beautiful etchings of beautiful women gained him a worldwide reputation
 
Louis Justin Laurent Icart was born in Toulouse, France, in 1888, the son of a banker.  He began drawing at an early age but entered the L’Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Toulouse in order to study for a career in banking.  On a visit to relatives in Paris, his aunt, who owned a fashionable millinery shop, saw the young Louis’ work and encouraged him to move to Paris to pursue his art.  He did so in 1907 and started his career in a studio that produced erotic postcards of the type for which Paris was then famous.  His first job was to make copies of existing images but he soon began designing original works.  He also submitted his work to magasines and was commissioned to design covers for La Critique Théâtrale.

 

It was during this period that Icart learned the technique of etching on copper, an art form which he pushed to new heights.  He combined his love of fashion and beautiful women with an equally clear appreciation of his commercial value as an artist and rapidly achieved success as an illustrator of catalogues for fashion houses.  In 1913 he was invited to exhibit at the Salon des Humoristes.

 

In 1914 Icart met Fanny Volmers, a beautiful and effervescent 18 year-old, and an artist in her own right, who was working for the fashion house of Paquin at the time.  Fanny eventually became his wife, his most popular model and, together with his love of Paris, the source of his artistic inspiration for the rest of his life.

Icart was conscripted into the military in World War One and became one of France’s first pilots.  He sketched constantly during the war and produced many etchings with patriotic themes.  It would seem that he relied on his art as an antidote to the horrors of war and was known to use every available piece of paper to sketch on.  After the war he made prints from these drawings.

 

Paris in the 1920s was renowned as the city of beauty and art with an extraordinarily vibrant artistic community in all its forms.  Art Deco erupted from the 1925 Paris Exposition des Arts Décoratifs (from which it took its name) and gripped the city for the remainder of the 1920s and into the 1930s.  In the 1920s Icart lived in New York City, where he became known for his etchings of beautiful women.  By the late 1920s Icart, working for publications, major fashion houses and design studios, had become highly successful artistically and financially.  His imagery of the female form perfectly captured the romance of the les années folles (the mad years) which he has come to symbolise.  His unabashed eroticism, and his incredibly prolific output, gained him world renown for his art and financial security personally.  In 1930 he moved into a magnificent house in Montmartre with breathtaking views of Paris where he was to remain for the rest of his life.

 

Icart’s portrayal of beautiful women is usually sensuous, often erotic, yet always imbued with an element of humour, which is as important as its implied or direct sexuality.  It was this combination of innocence and experience that would become his hallmark.

 

Icart’s etchings have a worldwide reputation and it is believed that he created more than 500 in his lifetime.  He also illustrated more than 30 books, many highly erotic, and became an accomplished painter.  His paintings are more personal, and less commercial, than his etchings and reflect the fact that they were created largely for his own pleasure and not intended for a public audience.  He died in Paris in 1950.

 

© Albany Fine Art

 

 

USEFUL LINKS (listed alphabetically)

Louis Icart Art Museum (Many works)
World History of Art (246 works: Please note that second window contains material of an explicit erotic nature)

 

 

 

Biographies