Louis Marcoussis (1878-1941)
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Louis Marcoussis was a French Cubist painter born Ludwig Casimir Ladislas Markous in Poland. He received his first artistic training in Krakow at the Academy of Fine Arts where he studied under Stanislawski. In 1903, Marcoussis moved to Paris where he studied under Jean Lefebvre at the Academie Julian, and initially painted in an Impressionistic style.
Marcoussis first exhibited his work at the Salon d’Automne in 1905, then at the Salon des Independents in 1906. During this time, he supported himself by creating sketches and cartoons for Le Journal and La Vie Parisienne. While living in Paris, he became friends with Degas and later, Braque and Picasso in 1910. Picasso and Braque would introduce him to Cubism and Marcoussis would continue to paint this way for the rest of his career. Marcoussis would eventually pull away from Picasso’s style of Cubism and find a vein of his own. His style of Cubism was almost strictly geometric, and rarely featured any sort of representational or figurative subjects.
Also during this time, Marcoussis changed from Ludwig Markous to Louis Marcoussis because Marcoussis was the name of a French village. Therefore, one can surmise that Marcoussis’s paintings and sketches pre-dating 1910 were neither Cubist, nor signed “Marcoussis.” For nearly a decade, he created a great number of varying pieces, likely in an Impressionist or academic hand under “Markous” that could have easily been overlooked or otherwise unnoticed.
World War I put a five year halt on Marcoussis’s career as an artist starting in 1914. He was able to paint only a very few Cubist compositions before his deployment. However, by 1921 he was exhibiting again, and for the rest of his life would show his work around the world in London, Chicago, Berlin New York. He traveled extensively throughout Europe, Northern Africa and the United States, certainly selling and painting as he went.
Today, Marcoussis’s paintings are housed all over the world in London, Chicago, Philadelphia and of course, France. Still wondering about a Cubist painting hanging in your home? Contact us…it could be by Louis Marcoussis.
