Artist:  MARCEL VERTES (French, 1895 - 1961)

Title:   "The Beggar" - 1940

Medium:  Original Lithograph on blue tinted wove

Signature:  Hand Signed by the Artist in pencil, LR

Edition:  Limited Edition of only 3 impressions; this one numbered "2/3" in pencil, LL

Printer:  Fernand Mourlot

Publisher:   Mourlot Studios / Editions Mourlot, with their drystamp

Provenance:  Hatay Stratton Fine Art, Northampton, Massachusettes

About the Artist:  MARCEL VERTÈS (born Marcell Vértes, 10 August 1895 – 31 October 1961) was a French costume designer and illustrator of Hungarian-Jewish origins.  He won two Academy Awards (Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design) for his work on the 1952 film Moulin Rouge.  Vertès is also responsible for the original murals in the Café Carlyle in the Carlyle Hotel in New York City, New York and for those in the Peacock Alley in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York.  Vertès was a member of the American Art League, and under the sponsorship of the American Federation of Arts, his work traveled to museums across the country in a celebrity portrait exhibition, "As They Were". He was made an officer of the Legion of Honor in 1955, when he designed for ballets at the Paris Opera.  He designed all the sets for Ringling Bros.-Barnum & Bailey Circus’ entire show in 1956, was an illustration contributor for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar and a member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1961.  Marcel Vertès died in Paris on October 31, 1961, at age 66.