A life lived to the full, 18 May 2002

Born in Italy in 1884, it was in pre-war Paris that this turn of the century pioneer flowered. Of respectable, Jewish origins, his life and work ended in disrepute, illness (died of T.B. aged 35) and poverty. Strongly influenced by the Symbolist poets, he was more interested in capturing nature through a distortion of the senses and experimenting with form rather than trying to imitate it. Hashish, absinthe, alcohol and torrid love affairs all played their part. With a painter's mastery of skin tones and a skilled sculptor, he very much believed in the power of the eyes as " windows of the soul." His sensual, erotic nudes and trademark long faces leave a sense of life lived to the full combined with a detached loneliness.
Owl

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