SON EXCELLENCE DONNE A DANSER. PIERRE BRISSAUD. GAZETTE DU BON TON

The Gazette du Bon Ton, put out by the retailer of the same name, was considered the trendsetting magazine of the era. Founded by Lucien Vogel and targeting Paris's upper class, it ran from 1912-1925. Only ten colour plates were printed per issue, and artists vied for the prestige of illustrating the latest Parisian fashion and lifestyle trends. As these pochoirs attest, the high style and iconic femininity made the items featured in the pages "must have's

This pochoir - created when single layers of color are added by hand to a lithograph using a stencil – shows.

Pierre Brissaud, born December 23, 1885 in the 6th arrondissement of Paris1, the city where he died on October 17, 1964 in his home in the 1st arrondissement2, is a French fashion painter and illustrator.

Two models by Jeanne Lanvin, drawing by Pierre Brissaud (Gazette du bon ton, 1922).

Son of the doctor and neurologist Édouard Brissaud and first cousin of Bernard Boutet de Monvel by his mother (Hélène Boutet de Monvel), Pierre Brissaud received his training as an artist at the Beaux-arts de Paris, in the studio of Fernand Cormon. His family pushed him to study art, just like his brother Jacques, also a painter. His uncle is the painter Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel.

In 1907, he exhibited for the first time at the Salon des Indépendants and at the Salon d'automne in Paris.

He entered the Gazette du Bon Ton in November 1912 as a fashion illustrator. He sketches wonderfully the creations of Louise Chéruit, Jeanne Lanvin or Jacques Doucet.

It is part of the Cercle des Mortigny, founded by Dimitri d'Osnobichine, in 1908 3, which brings together many artists and regulars of Parisian life: Paul Poiret, Bernard Boutet de Monvel, Georges Villa, Guy Arnoux, Joë Hamman, Lucien- Victor Guirand de Scevola, Joseph Pinchon, André Warnod, Pierre Troisgros, Jean Routier, Henri Callot, Pierre Falize, Pierre Prunier, a circle which operated until the 1950s4.

An outstanding illustrator, Édouard Chimot called on his talents for the Maison Devambez in the 1920s: he illustrated works by Honoré de Balzac, Anatole France, Gérard de Nerval, Pierre Loti and René Boylesve.

Brissaud was successful: his line appealed to foreign fashion magazines, he often published for Vogue covers after 1925, but also in House & Garden (en), Fortune, Vanity Fair, Monsieur, and L'Illustration.