PIERRE BRISSAUD (1885-1964)

French illustrator, painter, and engraver, born at Paris, created numerous illustrations and cover designs for such publications as Les Feuillets d'Art, Vanity Fair, and Vogue.  He spent some time at the Ecole de Beaux-Arts under the guidance of Fernand Cormon in 1905.  He shared a model with Georges Lepape, another Swann Collection artist, in his studio in the Rue Bonaparte.  He had his debut with the Independents and at the Salon d'Automne in 1907.  He also illustrated books by Balzac, Flaubert, Fromentin, and other renown authors.  His 1911 album, Vieilles chansons pour les coeurs sensibles was popular.  In his 1912 watercolors for La Gazette du bon ton, Brissaud presented interior views of the day.  A personal friend of the editor, Lucien Vogel, Brissaud remained a major contributor to the magazine, continuing illustrating after the magazine returned from its wartime hiatus in 1920.  Conde Nast, impressed with his work, hired him to produce illustrations for the British edition of Vogue when the Gazette suspended publication during World War I.  He continued to produce illustrations into the 1930s.

Sources:

Benezit; Dictionnaire Biographique des Artistes Contemporains 1910-30; Battersby, The Decorative Twenties; G. Schurr, 1820-1920, Les petits maitres de la peinture, p. 104; Lepape, From the ballets Russes to Vogue, pp. 28-31, 67, 72, 108; Packer, Fashion drawing in Vogue.

Information courtesy of Sara W. Duke, Curator, Library of Congress