DESCRIPTION OF ITEM :
ANOTHER OF THE SUPER FINE HIGH ART DECO FOUR SEASON SERIES ACCOMPLISHED BY WILLIAM WELSH. PLEASE BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE OTHER THREE POSTERPRINTS OF THE SET. THEY MAKE A VERY FINE GROUPING FOR THE WALL AND MAKE A FABULOUS WEDDING GIFT THEY ARE 12 X 18 IN SO FIT IN STANDARD FRAME.Art Deco, short for the French Arts Décoratifs, and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920s and 1930s. Through styling and design of the exterior and interior of anything from large structures to small objects, including how people look (clothing, fashion and jewelry), Art Deco has influenced bridges, buildings (from skyscrapers to cinemas), ships, ocean liners, trains, cars, trucks, buses, furniture, and everyday objects like radios and vacuum cleaners.
It got its name after the 1925 Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes (International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts) held in Paris.
Art Deco combined modern styles with fine craftsmanship and rich materials. During its heyday, it represented luxury, glamour, exuberance, and faith in social and technological progress.
From its outset, Art Deco was influenced by the bold geometric forms of Cubism and the Vienna Secession; the bright colours of Fauvism and of the Ballets Russes; the updated craftsmanship of the furniture of the eras of Louis Philippe I and Louis XVI; and the exoticized styles of China, Japan, India, Persia, ancient Egypt and Maya art. It featured rare and expensive materials, such as ebony and ivory, and exquisite craftsmanship. The Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, and other skyscrapers of New York City built during the 1920s and 1930s are monuments to the style.
In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, Art Deco became more subdued. New materials arrived, including chrome plating, stainless steel and plastic. A sleeker form of the style, called Streamline Moderne, appeared in the 1930s, featuring curving forms and smooth, polished surfaces.[4] Art Deco is one of the first truly international styles, but its dominance ended with the beginning of World War II and the rise of the strictly functional and unadorned styles of modern architecture and the International Style of architecture that followed.
Art Deco took its name, short for arts décoratifs, from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes held in Paris in 1925,[3] though the diverse styles that characterised it had already appeared in Paris and Brussels before World War I.
Arts décoratifs was first used in France in 1858 in the Bulletin de la Société française de photographie. In 1868, the Le Figaro newspaper used the term objets d'art décoratifs for objects for stage scenery created for the Théâtre de l'Opéra. In 1875, furniture designers, textile, jewellers, glass-workers, and other craftsmen were officially given the status of artists by the French government. In response, the École royale gratuite de dessin (Royal Free School of Design), founded in 1766 under King Louis XVI to train artists and artisans in crafts relating to the fine arts, was renamed the École nationale des arts décoratifs (National School of Decorative Arts). It took its present name, ENSAD (École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs), in 1927.
At the 1925 Exposition, architect Le Corbusier wrote a series of articles about the exhibition for his magazine L'Esprit Nouveau, under the title "1925 EXPO. ARTS. DÉCO.", which were combined into a book, L'art décoratif d'aujourd'hui (Decorative Art Today). The book was a spirited attack on the excesses of the colourful, lavish objects at the Exposition, and on the idea that practical objects such as furniture should not have any decoration at all; his conclusion was that "Modern decoration has no decoration".
The actual term art déco did not appear in print until 1966, in the title of the first modern exhibition on the subject, held by the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris, Les Années 25 : Art déco, Bauhaus, Stijl, Esprit nouveau, which covered the variety of major styles in the 1920s and 1930s. The term was then used in a 1966 newspaper article by Hillary Gelson in The Times (London, 12 November), describing the different styles at the exhibit.
Art Deco gained currency as a broadly applied stylistic label in 1968 when historian Bevis Hillier published the first major academic book on it, Art Deco of the 20s and 30s. He noted that the term was already being used by art dealers, and cites The Times (2 November 1966) and an essay named Les Arts Déco in Elle magazine (November 1967) as examples. In 1971, he organized an exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, which he details in his book The World of Art Deco.
Origins
Society of Decorative Artists (1901–1945)
The emergence of Art Deco was closely connected with the rise in status of decorative artists, who until late in the 19th century were considered simply as artisans. The term arts décoratifs had been invented in 1875, giving the designers of furniture, textiles, and other decoration official status. The Société des artistes décorateurs (Society of Decorative Artists), or SAD, was founded in 1901, and decorative artists were given the same rights of authorship as painters and sculptors. A similar movement developed in Italy. The first international exhibition devoted entirely to the decorative arts, the Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Decorativa Moderna, was held in Turin in 1902. Several new magazines devoted to decorative arts were founded in Paris, including Arts et décoration and L'Art décoratif moderne. Decorative arts sections were introduced into the annual salons of the Sociéte des artistes français, and later in the Salon d'Automne. French nationalism also played a part in the resurgence of decorative arts, as French designers felt challenged by the increasing exports of less expensive German furnishings. In 1911, SAD proposed a major new international exposition of decorative arts in 1912. No copies of old styles would be permitted, only modern works. The exhibit was postponed until 1914; and then, because of the war, until 1925, when it gave its name to the whole family of styles known as "Déco".
Art Deco was not a single style, but a collection of different and sometimes contradictory styles. In architecture, Art Deco was the successor to and reaction against Art Nouveau, a style which flourished in Europe between 1895 and 1900, and also gradually replaced the Beaux-Arts and neoclassical that were predominant in European and American architecture. In 1905 Eugène Grasset wrote and published Méthode de Composition Ornementale, Éléments Rectilignes, in which he systematically explored the decorative (ornamental) aspects of geometric elements, forms, motifs and their variations, in contrast with (and as a departure from) the undulating Art Nouveau style of Hector Guimard, so popular in Paris a few years earlier. Grasset stressed the principle that various simple geometric shapes like triangles and squares are the basis of all compositional arrangements. The reinforced-concrete buildings of Auguste Perret and Henri Sauvage, and particularly the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, offered a new form of construction and decoration which was copied worldwide.
In decoration, many different styles were borrowed and used by Art Deco. They included pre-modern art from around the world and observable at the Musée du Louvre, Musée de l'Homme and the Musée national des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie. There was also popular interest in archaeology due to excavations at Pompeii, Troy, and the tomb of the 18th dynasty Pharaoh Tutankhamun. Artists and designers integrated motifs from ancient Egypt, Africa, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, Asia, Mesoamerica and Oceania with Machine Age elements.
Other styles borrowed included Russian Constructivism and Italian Futurism, as well as Orphism, Functionalism, and Modernism in general. Art Deco also used the clashing colours and designs of Fauvism, notably in the work of Henri Matisse and André Derain, inspired the designs of art deco textiles, wallpaper, and painted ceramics. It took ideas from the high fashion vocabulary of the period, which featured geometric designs, chevrons, zigzags, and stylized bouquets of flowers. It was influenced by discoveries in Egyptology, and growing interest in the Orient and in African art. From 1925 onwards, it was often inspired by a passion for new machines, such as airships, automobiles and ocean liners, and by 1930 this influence resulted in the style called Streamline Moderne.
Art Deco was associated with both luxury and modernity; it combined very expensive materials and exquisite craftsmanship put into modernistic forms. Nothing was cheap about Art Deco: pieces of furniture included ivory and silver inlays, and pieces of Art Deco jewellery combined diamonds with platinum, jade, coral and other precious materials. The style was used to decorate the first-class salons of ocean liners, deluxe trains, and skyscrapers. It was used around the world to decorate the great movie palaces of the late 1920s and 1930s. Later, after the Great Depression, the style changed and became more sober.
A good example of the luxury style of Art Deco is the boudoir of the fashion designer Jeanne Lanvin, designed by Armand-Albert Rateau (1882–1938) made between 1922 and 1925. It was located in her house at 16 rue Barbet de Jouy, in Paris, which was demolished in 1965. The room was reconstructed in the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris. The walls are covered with moulded lambris below sculpted bas-reliefs in stucco. The alcove is framed with columns of marble on bases and a plinth of sculpted wood. The floor is of white and black marble, and in the cabinets decorative objects are displayed against a background of blue silk. Her bathroom had a tub and washstand made of sienna marble, with a wall of carved stucco and bronze fittings.
By 1928 the style had become more comfortable, with deep leather club chairs. The study designed by the Paris firm of Alavoine for an American businessman in 1928–30, is now in the Brooklyn Museum.
By the 1930s, the style had been somewhat simplified, but it was still extravagant. In 1932 the decorator Paul Ruaud made the Glass Salon for Suzanne Talbot. It featured a serpentine armchair and two tubular armchairs by Eileen Gray, a floor of mat silvered glass slabs, a panel of abstract patterns in silver and black lacquer, and an assortment of animal skins.
William Peter Welsh (1889–1984) was a muralist, portrait painter, and illustrator from Kentucky as well as a soldier who served in both world wars and in the Mexican Border campaign with General Pershing in 1916. He died at age 95 in his hometown of Lexington, Kentucky. His mural painting Lexington Street Scene, October 1793 was at the Kentuckian Hotel on High Street and was recreated by the artist after its destruction and displayed at Hymon's Department store with prints also sold. His painting "Prisoner of War" is part of the Art Institute of Chicago's collection. He also painted murals for the Chicago Room of Palmer House and did a series of European style poster advertisements for Pullman sleeping cars. He won awards and recognition for the campaign. He worked in Illinois. His work was also part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1936 Summer Olympics.
Early life and education
William Peter Welsh was born to Bartholomew J. Welsh and Sara Ellen Cunningham King Welsh in Lexington, Kentucky. He was one of six children, four boys and two girls: an older brother, King; a sister, Agatha; Welsh; twins Barry and August (Gus); and Marguerite.
Welsh attended Saint Paul's, a boys-only school taught by nuns. School for him started at 7:30 a.m. and he attended Mass each day before class.
Welsh's father, Bartholomew, died of cancer following a three-year bout with an aneurism that finally burst. Welsh was three years old, when his father developed the aneurism. After his father's death, his mother Sara supported the children by living in boarding homes that belonged to relatives and friends so she could work and earn money.
Welsh took his first job, a summer position at the Lexington Leader, at age 12 making $2 a week. His boss, Sam Roberts, fired him after the summer so he could return to school. At age 14, he started working at the Kaufman Clothing Company in Lexington where he was soon promoted and made $3 a week, and later $6. His boss at this store, Phil Strauss, would prove influential in his success as an artist.
Ella Williams School for Girls
When Welsh was 15, he began studying under Mary Kinkead, his first painting teacher, at the Ella Williams School for Girls in Lexington. He was one of only a few boys who attended. It was here that he met Henrietta Clay. They were later sweethearts and engaged. After Clay ended their engagement for another man, they remained good friends. In his oral history account, Welsh credited his time at Ella Williams studying under Kinkead as what would inspire him to travel abroad and study art.
Academie Julien and Atelier Delecleuse in Paris
Welsh got into Academie Julien and Atelier Delecleuse in Paris, France thanks to a connection of his Lexington art teacher, Mary Kinkead. His boss at the Kaufman Clothing Company, Phil Strauss, funded Welsh's time in Paris with a monthly check of $40 because he trusted Mart Kinkead's judgement that Welsh was suited for Paris. After he returned from Europe, he spent two years in Lexington doing odd art jobs and sports activities at a YMCA. He then went to New York to pursue art. He had a promise of $25 a week in New York for working in George Ford Morris's studio (Morris was a New York horse painter). While in New York, he worked and attended the Arts Student League.
Military service
Welsh first enlisted in the Army in 1914 at the First New York Field Artillery, Battery B as a private despite only have one good eye (his left). His first field experience was in 1916 during his time serving with General Pershing in the Mexican Border Campaign in search of Pancho Villa. He never encountered Villa. After his Mexican Border tour of duty, he went overseas with his regiment and served in Brittany, Brest. Here his French language skills, acquired during his art school days in Paris, made him invaluable to his regiment. After Brest, he was shipped to Bordeaux to a camp called Desseus. Soon after, his French language skills grabbed the attention of his superiors, along with his artistic training, and he was transferred to Langres, where he worked with a camouflage unit. Later, during the second world war, Welsh joined again, this time at age 52. He again worked in camouflage, this time in charge of a St. Louis unit for a short time. He was later an executive officer in the same unit to his replacement officer, a younger man named Austin who was 35 and sent from Washington to replace Welsh.
Japan
During World War II, while in his 50s, Welsh received a commission to use his art skills to document the war. Welsh landed in Japan in October 1945 and left in July 1946 after the military requested that he go overseas and paint and draw images for historical war records. He chose the Japanese theater and spent ten months drawing and painting the destruction and beauty he found in the country. He completed ten paintings while there. He would later give presentations and speeches about his time in Japan to various clubs in Kentucky. Pictures of his Japanese paintings appeared in newspapers across several states such as the Louisville Courier-Journal, the Chicago Tribune, the Lexington Herald-Leader, and others.
Military awards
- American Campaign Medal
- Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal
- World War I Victory Medal with Star
- World War II Victory Medal
- Mexican Border Ribbon
- Personal Commendation (Hoyt. S. Vandenberg, Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, 1953).
The Lexington Street Scene
Among Welsh's most notable work was his "Lexington Street Scene" a 24 foot-long, 6-foot high mural that was thought to have been destroyed during the demolition of the Kentuckian Hotel. He re-painted his famous mural in 1975. Members of The Welsh Society rediscovered the original mural in 1981.
Family and personal life
Welsh was born into a Catholic family, but never took religion seriously. By the time his oral history was published in 1982, he said he neither believed in life after death nor eternal punishment and reward. He said he lived by no philosophy or religion, thinking both to be "utter nonsense"[5] and said what got him through life was his ability and passion to paint.
Other honors and awards
- 1910–1913—Cleveland Murals at the Cleveland Athletic Club, Berghoff Rathskellar, and the Hotel Statler
- 1921—First prize in the International Watercolor Exhibition in Chicago
- 1930–31—Art Directors Club medal in New York City.
- 1936—Barron Collier Medal for Advertising Art.
- 1936–37—Award of Merit, Chicago Society of Typographic Art.
- 1938—First and Third prizes for Century of Progress poster Competition in Chicago.
- 1942—Commissioned Captain in the Army Air Force.
- 1943—Commissioned Major in the Army Air Force. Developed and directed the training for the camouflage operations in the Pacific Theater of War in the Army Air Force.
- 1946—Commissioned Lieutenant Colonel.
- 1949—Margaret Cooper Prize from the Allied Artists of America
- 1950—Popular Vote Prize from the Artists Along the Mississippi Exhibition.
- 1950—Elected to the Royal Society of Arts in London. As of 1982, he was thought to be the only living American Fellow in this society.
Life timelinE
- 1889—born on September 20, to Bartholomew J. Welsh and Sara Ellen Cunningham King Welsh in Lexington, Kentucky
- 1904—Studied drawing and painting at the Ella Williams School in Lexington under Mary Kinkead, a former student of Frank Duveneck
- 1906–07—Student, Academie Julien and Atelier Delecleuse in Paris
- 1909–1910—Student at Art Students League in New York under Vincent Dumond
- 1910–1913—Cleveland Murals at the Cleveland Athletic Club, Berghoff Rathskellar, and the Hotel Statler
- 1914—Entered the Army in the First New York Field Artillery as a private
- 1915—Commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army
- 1916—Mexican Border campaign with General Pershing
- 1917—Commissioned as a first lieutenant in the Army
- 1918—American Expeditionary Forces, Langres, St. Mihiel, decorated
- 1919—Established the College of Fine and Applied Arts at the American Expeditionary Forces University, Beaune, Cote d'Or, France, where he met Marie Prieur
- 1919–42—Established himself in Chicago as an illustrator for The Woman's Home Companion, Good Housekeeping, Hearst International, and Cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan magazines. During this time he also became noted for his advertising and his portraiture
- 1921—First prize in the International Watercolor Exhibition in Chicago
- 1924—Murals for the Chicago Room, The Palmer House, Chicago
- 1930–31—Art Directors Club medal in New York City
- 1936—Barron Collier Medal for Advertising Art
- 1936–37—Award of Merit, Chicago Society of Typographic Art
- 1938—First and Third prizes for Century of Progress poster Competition in Chicago
- 1940—Completed "The Fat Lady", considered to be his best work
- 1942—Commissioned Captain in the Army Air Force
- 1943—Commissioned Major in the Army Air Force; developed and directed the training for the camouflage operations in the Pacific Theater of War in the Army Air Force
- 1945–46—Recorded events in the Philippines and postwar Japan in art media for the Historical Records office in the Army Air Force
- 1946—Commissioned Lieutenant Colonel
- 1948—Returned to Lexington, Kentucky to devote himself to portraiture and teaching
- 1949—Margaret Cooper Prize from the Allied Artists of America
- 1950—Popular Vote Prize from the Artists Along the Mississippi Exhibition
- 1950—Elected to the Royal Society of Arts in London; as of 1982, he was thought to be the only living American Fellow in this society
- 1956—One Man Exhibition, Speed Art Museum in Louisville
- 1960–1974—Taught classes in portrait painting in Louisville
- 1978—Welsh's friends founded the William P. Welsh Society
- 1980—One Man Exhibit at the United States Military Academy at West Point
- 1981—Only living artist represented in the retrospective exhibition, "Kentucky Painter: From the Frontier Era to the Great War" at the University of Kentucky Fine Arts Museum
At PosterPrint Shop we look for rare & unusual REPRODUCTION posters OF commercial graphics from throughout the world.
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