Bidspirit auction | Edgar Chahine (1874 - 1947)

Edgar Chahine (1874 - 1947) ”Portrait of an unknown woman” 21.5x 34 cm (with Passepartout, the size of the graphic work is 31x43 cm) The author's signature ”Edgar Chahine” is in the lower left corner. - He was born in Vienna; as a teenager, he went to Constantinople to study with the support of his father (director of an Ottoman bank). He studied in Italy: in Venice, at the Murad Armenian College‑Rafaelian and Antonio Ermolao Paoletti at the Accademia di Belle Arti (on the advice of Professor Melkon Tiratsuyan). In 1895, he moved to Paris, studied at the Académie Julian and actively exhibited at the Société des Artistes Français; the first painting exhibited at the salon was portrait of a beggar (1896). In 1900, he received a gold medal for prints at the World's Fair in Paris; in 1903, a gold medal at the Venice Biennale. He often turned to Armenian subjects; in 1926 he became a co-founder of the Union of Armenian artists ”Ani” in Paris. Since 1925, he has been a full—fledged French citizen; in 1932, he was awarded the Legion of Honor. Most of the prints died: a fire in the workshop (1926) and a flood (1942), so most of the works have not survived to this day. Legacy: by the end of the 1920s, his popularity in France was great, and in 1928 a museum was opened in his honor in Krut‑Vimoutier (Department of Orne).