Framed Engravings 1920s/1930s Signed Maurice Millière (1871-1946)

Numbered color etchings signed Maurice Millière (1871-1946), in a very nice frame, depicting elegant ladies at the toilet. 1920s/1930s. Art Deco. Dimensions: 40 x 32 cm (with view); 57 x 47 cm (with frame). We are selling the pair for 100€.

Maurice Millière, born in Le Havre on December 12, 1871 and died in Yport on April 5, 1946, was a French painter, illustrator and lithographer. He was one of the inventors of Millière's "petite femme, une Parisienne souriante".

Maurice Georges Louis Millière was born in Le Havre in 1871. He came from a working-class background in Le Havre, his father being a sales clerk for a merchant.

Millière began his career as a young man.

Millière began by studying painting at the École des Beaux-Arts in Le Havre. He moved to Paris in 1889, entering l'Arts décoratifs and also frequenting some of the Beaux-Arts workshops in Paris.

Millière's first graphic works were published in 1889.

His first notable graphic works were posters and scores for, among others, the Le Boulch company or Le Divan japonais (1899).

From 1917, he published large quantities of depictions of women in states of undress: first in Fantasio (1917), then Bagatelles, La Vie parisienne, Le Frou-frou, Le Sourire, Gai-Paris, Journal amusant, etc.

At the end of 1920, he joined La République de Montmartre, a charitable association.

Contemporary with those of Louis Icart, his "little women" were to enjoy great success outside France: during the 1920s, American periodicals reprinted his creations, as well as those of Suzanne Meunier or Georges Léonnec, other illustrators of female figures, then associated with "Gai Paris", in other words the Montmartre district and its many cabarets. Millière's little women were a source of inspiration for Alberto Vargas and Enoch Bolles, forerunners of the "pin-up style"

These women are also featured on postcards, posters, menus and more. Part of this production, admittedly erotic, is devoted to much more daring representations, and therefore marketed discreetly: these are watercolors declining dominatrix women, indulging in flagellation, which were successful in England.

It's not all about eroticism.

He stayed in the West Indies, where he drew and painted pictures, notably of West Indian women. Several of these works were exhibited at the salons of the Société Nationale des Artistes français and the Société Coloniale des Artistes français. He illustrated a book published in 1929, Madinina "Reine des Antilles": a study of Martinican customs. In August 1930, he was named Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur in the colonial category.

The following year, he was named Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur in the colonial category.

The following year, he exhibited his paintings at the Salon des artistes français, and his drawings at the Salon des humoristes.

He had opened a painting and drawing class in Neuilly-sur-Seine.

He died on April 5, 1946 in Yport.

Illustrated works

• Hymen revue, Versailles, 1898.
• Michel Corday, les Mésaventures d'un monoglotte, Paris, Berlitz, 1910.
• Maurice Vaucaire, Mimi du Conservatoire, coll. In Extenso, Paris, La Renaissance du livre, 1917.
• André Poulain, Les Jaunets du Pé Malandain, preface by Raoul Binet, Paris, Guillemot et de Lamotte, 1938.
• Dufourgère William, illustrated by Maurice Millière, Madinina "Reine des Antilles" : étude de mœurs martiniquaises, Paris, Berger-Levrault, 1929[8],[9].
• Maurice Millière, Cravache et fanfreluches, Nanterre, Éditions Déesse, 1978.
• Gyp, L'Âge du mufle, coll. In Extenso, Paris, La Renaissance du livre, s.d.
• René Le Cœur, Lili, coll. In Extenso, Paris, La Renaissance du livre, s.d.