charles baudelaire (1821 - 1867)
François Auguste René Rodin was a French sculptor, generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a unique ability to model a complex, turbulent, and deeply pocketed surface in clay. He is known for such sculptures as The Thinker, Monument to Balzac, The Kiss, The Burghers of Calais, and The Gates of Hell.
Many of Rodin's most notable sculptures were criticized, as they clashed with predominant figurative sculpture traditions in which works were decorative, formulaic, or highly thematic. Rodin's most original work departed from traditional themes of mythology and allegory. He modeled the human body with naturalism, and his sculptures celebrate individual character and physicality. Although Rodin was sensitive to the controversy surrounding his work, he refused to change his style, and his continued output brought increasing favor from the government and the artistic community.
Edouard Chimot was a French Art Deco painter, illustrator and editor.
Edouard studied at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in Nice and then at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Lille. After the war, he was able to prove himself as an illustrator and master publisher. At the height of the Art Deco heyday, Chimot received a number of commissions to illustrate books with his original engravings, the first of which was the rare book Les Après-Midi de Montmartre with fourteen engravings by Chimot.
In 1920, Édouard Chimot founded his own publishing house, Éditions d'Art Édouard Chimot. Through this venture, he not only continued to create his own art, but also collaborated with other artists and writers to create high quality limited edition books, often with his distinctive illustrations. Édouard Chimot was associated with late Symbolist and decadent culture, and his own work is sometimes referred to as post-Symbolist. His collaborations with famous writers and poets, including Paul Verlaine and Charles Baudelaire, brought his illustrations to the forefront of the Art Nouveau movement.
With the collapse of the financial system in the early 1930s in Europe, the demand for luxury products also fell, but the artist continued to work, produce books and paint. Chimot's artistic style is characterized by sensuality and romanticism. He was an artist of the female figure, style, eroticism and embodied the essence of Art Deco imagery.