Raphael Kirchner

RAPHAEL KIRCHNER (1876 - 1917).
"Couple of Parisian ladies", first quarter of the 20th century.
Watercolor on paper.
Signed right margin.
Measurements: 62 x 39 cm; 93 x 68 cm (frame).

Raphael Kirchner was born in Vienna and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in his native city. In 1900 he decided to move to Paris, where he began to collaborate as an illustrator in magazines. With the outbreak of World War I he emigrated to New York, where he lived until his death.

Throughout his career he created more than a thousand works, mostly paintings and drawings, many of which were published as postcards. His Orientalist-themed series, entitled "Geishas," was particularly successful, selling more than forty thousand copies. Kirchner's images, which depicted female beauty, often with subtly erotic touches, became the first "pin-up" images popular with both European and American soldiers during the war. Kirchner's influence on the pin-up world endured even during World War II, when the genre reached its peak.