David Ossipovitch WIDHOPFF (Odessa 1867 - Saint-Clair-sur-Epte 1933)

Self-portrait Made in 1926 Oil on canvas 44 x 45,5 cm Signed and dated lower right "D. O. Widhopff 26". David Ossipovitch Widhopff also known as D.O. Widhopff is a French artist of Ukrainian origin of the School of Paris, painter, illustrator, poster artist, columnist, caricaturist, decorator. After graduating from the Imperial Academy of Odessa, he went to Munich and entered the Royal Academy in the class of Johann Caspar Herterich. He arrived in Paris in August 1887 and entered the Académie Julian under the direction of Tony Robert-Fleury and Jules Joseph Lefebvre. He participated in the artistic life of his time, lived in Montmartre and exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants, Salon d'Automne, Salon des Tuileries. Personal exhibitions are dedicated to him at Eugène Blot in 1919, at the gallery B. Weill Gallery in 1929 and at the Galerie des Artistes Modernes. David Ossipovitch Widhopff portrays himself as colossal, with his neck muscles protruding, his eyes straight and his legendary beard. His friends talk about him, emphasizing his generosity but also his Herculean strength. Marcel Lami in the Courrier français of May 1, 1904 compared Widhopff to a "Hercules as powerful in soul as in torso... who enchanted Paris with his strength, his kindness, his inexhaustible heart, his inexhaustible talent... with a taste for health, power, and women.