EDWARD CUCUEL (1875-1954)

The casino of Monte-Carlo Watercolor on paper Signed lower left Dimensions: 42 x 32 cm Painter of genre, figures, portraits and nudes, he represents with happiness the women of the Belle-Epoque, often by the water or in gardens. He was introduced to painting at the Art Institute of San Francisco and at the age of 17, he went to Paris where he successively attended the Académie Julian, Colarossi and the Académie des Beaux-Arts in the studio of Jean-Léon Gérôme. He then undertook a long journey around the world to China before settling in Munich in 1907. It is in Germany that he will greatly influence the painting of German expressionists, beginning to work with Leo Putz. He married Clara Lotte von Marcard in 1913 and usually spent their summers in a town on Lake Ammersee in Holzhausen near Munich. In 1928 he moved to New York, still traveling extensively for painting, but settled permanently in California until his death in 1954. A member of the Munich Secession movement, he was one of the first plein air painters to depict idyllic outdoor scenes of elegant young women in an impressionistic style. Public collections: Art Institute Chicago, National Academy New-York, Carnegie Institute Pittsburgh. Bibliography: Fritz von Ostini: Edward Cucuel, Zürich, Vienna, Leipzig 1924. Hans Villmer, Edward Cucuel Leipzig, 1953, Reprint, Munich 1992.