rené boylesve (1867 - 1926)
George Barbier was a French artist and illustrator, fashion designer, who influenced the development of the Art Deco movement.
George Barbier studied painting at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Initially he worked as an illustrator for several famous Parisian fashion magazines, and gradually his drawings began to define the style of women's clothing. The emergence of the Art Nouveau style moved Barbier to create luxurious fashions for cabarets, theaters, and movies. He depicted extravagant theatrical costumes with sparkling rhinestones, high headdresses and huge plumes. Barbier created stage costume designs for Diaghilev's famous Russian Ballet.
He also illustrated catalogs and many literary works, including works by Charles Baudelaire and P. Verlaine, and was an author and designer of jewelry.
René Boylesve, birth name René Marie Auguste Tardiveau, is a French writer and literary critic, a member of the Académie Française.
Boylesve was educated at Poitiers, Tours, and Paris, studying humanities and fine arts, natural sciences, and law. Ten years later, under his mother's maiden name, he wrote his first novel, The Physician of the Lady of Nean (1894). These were followed by other books, and then came the series known as the "Touraine novels": "Mademoiselle Cloke" (1899), "Beke" (1901), "The Child at the Balustrade" (1903), "The Educated Girl" (1909) and others. In these works, the author expertly depicts the mores of the provincial petty bourgeoisie. With a richly detailed style and characteristic irony Boylesve tells about the triumph of conventional values over artistic and spiritual aspirations.
In 1918 René Boylesve was elected a member of the French Academy.
