Georges Lepape
Georges Lepape was born in Paris, France in 1887. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1909 he began working for Paul Poiret and two years later, in 1911, he illustrated Poiret's famous brochure, Les Choses de Paul Poiret vue par Georges Lepape. Lepape worked for Jean Patou in 1912, to illustrate the designer's collections. He also worked for many magazines, among them the Gazette Du Bon Ton, Femina, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Les Feuillets D'Art, Modes et Manieres d'Aujourd'hui, and Vanity Fair.
Lepape's work was strongly influenced by Orientalism and the Ballets Russes. His work showed a distinctive curvilinear style. He was better known than many other illustrators of the period, chiefly through his designs of posters and books and his work as a printmaker. The women in his illustrations are independent women with carefree attitude who started the age of the femme-garconne. In his two-dimensional photos, the color was distributed in blocks, like in oriental prints, by which Lepape was fascinated.
During the 1920s, Iribe held classes in New York and his drawings were imitated by young illustrators. His last cover drawing was in 1938 but he later worked on book illustrations.
