Umberto Brunelleshi
(1879 - 1949)
Italian fashion illustrator, painter and costume designer Umberto Brunelleshi was born in Montemurio, Italy. He studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence. After graduating he concentrated his studies on nudes. After exhibiting his work in Italy, he moved to Paris in 1900 , where he began by working as a caricaturist under the pseudonym Harun-al Rashid.
In the early years of the twentyeth century, Brunelleshi made drawings for the magazine 'l'Assiete Au Beurre; where he worked with Paul iribe. Brunelleshi also worked for the fashion periodicals: La Caricature, Journal des Dames et des Modes, Femina, Le Monde Illustre, Le rire, Gazette de Bon Ton, Harper's Bazaar, Vanity Fair and Vogue; as a caricaturist and illustrator.
Brunelleshi's work was influenced by the Orientalism of the times (Leon Bakst's and Erte's art); and by the Art Deco style, as well as by the elegance of the18th century Florentine art. The main color of his palette was blue. He was also regarded as one of the the most prominent printers of the Art Deco Period. He completed his works using the technique called "porchoir," (a method of creating hand-painted prints with stencils). His prints were exhibited at the Salons in Paris and at the Venice Biennale.
In the 1920s, Brunelleshi diversified and designed costumes for the extravagant performer Josephine Baker. He also worked for the theater, designing scenes and costumes for La Scala, the Folies Bergere, the Casino in Paris, as well as the New York’s Roxy Theater, andtheaters in Italy and Germany. The last part of his life he worked mainly as a book illustrator, mainly on erotic limited editions. As a book illustrator, he worked for writers such as Gabriele d'Annunzio, Andersen, Boccaccio, Goethe, Voltaire, Diderot, Jean de La Fontaine, and Charles Perrault.
Umberto Brunelleshi died in Paris, France in 1949, at the age of seventy years old.
