Umberto Brunelleschi

About Umberto Brunelleschi

Italian painter, illustrator, costume designer and commercial artist.

After studying in Florence and participating in various exhibitions in Italy, in 1900 Umberto Brunelleschi settled in Paris, where he found work as an illustrator for the magazine Le Rire. In the early years of the twentieth century, developed ties with the community of young poets living the Quartier Latin and began to exhibit at the Salon des Independents.

He made drawings for the magazine "l'Assiette au Beurre" and also worked at various fashion magazines such as Les Feuillets d'Art, La gazette du bon ton, Fémina and le Journal des Dames et des Modes. He was also the art director of "La Guirlande de l'art et de la littérature" a short-lived (1919-1920) but noted magazine. He also then to made billboards for a department stores, made portraits, and expanded his Florentine modernism.

In the twenties, Brunelleschi diversified into creating costumes for revues at the Folies Bergere , the Casino de Paris and for the theatre (Le Châtelet in Paris, as well as theatres in New York, Italy and Germany). He also created many of Josephine Baker's stage costumes.

Brunelleschi's career was above all that of an illustrator. Luc Monod's published 30 or so books illustrated by Brunelleschi, for writers such as Andersen, Gabriele d'Annunzio, Charles Perrault, Jean de La Fontaine, Boccacio (Décameron), Diderot, Voltaire (Candide, Ingénu), Goethe, Musset or Father Prevost. His original gouaches for illustrating books were regularly exhibited in the Salons and at the Venice Biennale.

Brunelleschi died in 1949.