Edy-Legrand - Lithograph - Hands - Signed and Numbered AP1900
Beautifully drawn, wonderfully nightmarish. The art measures 11" x 14" and the frame is 18" x 21". Under glass. In beautiful condition. Numbered 88/150. By an artist who both set and embodied the style between the two World Wars with his posters and fashion illustration, and commercial art, the last word, ultra-chic, and then became a highly regarded fine-arts painter in the last half of his career, post-war.
Edy-Legrand, whose real name was Edward Louis Warschawsky Leon, was born in Bordeaux in 1892, and died in Bonnieux in 1970. He was a French illustrator and painter. He made the first part of his career in advertising illustration and literature. Later, his work was devoted to painting. He attended the Ecole des Beaux Artes in Paris, the Art Academy in Munich, and then lived and worked for Tolmer Publishing House in Paris for much of his career. After the Second World War, he spent much time in New York where he worked as an illustrator for various publishers.
Legrand was born in Bordeaux, France to a French mother and a Russian-Jewish father. In 1919, as a young painter , Edy-Legrand created his first children's book, Macao and Cosmage or Be Happy, for the New French Review. The compositions were colored by hand by Jean Saudé. This album was greeted with exceptional praise since the 1980s and applauded as a milestone in the history of illustrated book for children.
In 1932, Edy-Legrand participated in the first World Exhibition of engraved works of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he represented France. In this exhibit was also work by Picasso, Matisse and Derain, but Edy-Legrand was the only one to receive an honorable mention. (!)
Subsequently, he moved to Rabat, in Morocco. Of this period, Jacques Majorelle wrote: "In Morocco, Edy-Legrand is fascinated by the elements of life that he discovered in the unceasing movement of crowds and the vibration of color by the play of light on the costumes and decor. The show is so totally pictorial he must complains, at first, at being obliged to fight against the temptation to faithfully reproduce its external reality [...]. The more he painted, the more clearly he affirmed its independence vis-à-vis the spectacle of nature. He loves above all to recreate the thrill of his subject through infinite combinations of colored masses. "
He was married to the choreographer Myriam Edy-Legrand, born June 4, 1926.
