This is a fabulous colour etching by the French artist, Louis Icart (1880 - 1950).
Icart was born at Toulouse in France, and from his early years showed an interest in fashion.
This is one of the finest etchings and aquatints by the artist. It has been hand-coloured and has the distinctive Windmill Blindstamp towards the bottom edge. At the top, it is inscribed with the publication line: Copyright 1933 by L. Icart. S.TY = N.Y. =
This extremely sought-after and fine original etching has beautiful and very subtle hand colouring. The flower heads are touched with delicate blushes of pink and dappled greens are on the leaves. Our lovely lady has "moderne" golden blonde hair with blue eyes. She is the epitome of glamour with his red rosebud lips and ruby fingernails.
She has obviously been out in the garden having a summer stroll. She has been wearing a wide-brimmed hat with long ribbons. She has just returned home to her boudoir - where she is surrounded by heaped bouquets of blousy pink roses. She reclines on a divan and her diaphanous dress rides up above her knees. She teases the viewer with her direct "come and get me" gaze - and you even get a little peep of a shapely thigh just above her stocking tops. The oval shape gives you the suggestion that you are almost spying on our beautiful lady as she waits in anticipation for her lover to arrive.
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 Honoré Fragonard.
Icart's portrayal of women is usually sensuous, often erotic, yet always imbued with an element of humour, which is as important as implied or direct sexuality. The beautiful courtesans cavort on rich, thick pillows; their facial expressions projecting passion, dismay or surprise, for the women of Louis Icart are the women of France as we have imagined them to be Eve, Leda, Venus, Scheherazade and Joan of Arc, all wrapped up into an irresistible package.
Image size: 42 x 52.5 cm (oval). Frame size: 58 x 69.5 cm.
Condition: in exceptional condition with no issues. Recently re-mounted with a fresh museum-quality mat. With original decorative gold gilt frame. You will not find a better impression than this one.
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