Louis MARCOUSSIS [Ludwik Kazimierz Władysław MARKUS] (1878-1941), Sigmund BRUNNER (1878-1961), Cover design L'Assiette au Beurre, 1912

The featured gouache is a cover design for the French satirical weekly, "L'Assiette au Beurre." Louis Marcoussis created it together with illustrator Sigmund Brunner. The illustration with the title "Les nuits de noce" appeared in the 562nd issue of January 20, 1912.

Louis Marcoussis, actually Ludwik Kazimierz Markus, went to Paris after studying with Jan Stanislawski and Jozef Mehoffer in Krakow. There, in addition to painting, he also worked as an illustrator for magazines such as "La Vie parisienne" and "L'Assiette au beurre." At the end of the first decade of the 20th century, as a result of an artistic crisis, the artist destroyed his work and abandoned painting for several years. In 1910, he made a remarkable comeback. At the urging of writer Guillaume Apollinaire, he took the name Marcoussis and, together with such world painting greats as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Juan Gris, laid the foundations of Cubist art. From these oil compositions, by the way, he is best known, and his canvases are a remarkable rarity on the Polish auction market.