Paul Poiret was born on April 20th, 1879 to a cloth merchant in the neighborhood of Les Halles, Paris. When Poiret was a teenager he took some of his sketches to Madame Cheruit, a dressmaker, who purchased a dozen from him. He continued to sell his sketches until he was hired by Jacques Doucet in 189
At the end of the nineteenth century, there was probably no greater way to gain international recognition as an artist -- or anything else for that matter -- than to be associated with the brilliant actress Sarah Bernhardt. Czechoslovakian painter Alphonse Mucha would get just that opportunity. As a
About the drama between good and evil, the editors of the Catholic Encyclopedia are expert; and about Aubrey Beardsley, regularly found at the side of the goddess of indecency fanning her with a gigantic palm leaf, they have this to say: "He was unable to withstand the desire to do clever, mischievou