Bernard Boutet de Monvel

French painter, illustrator, designer, printmaker, 1881–1949

BiographyThe son of the artist and illustrator Maurice Boutet de Monvel, Bernard Boutet de Monvel is regarded as one of the finest illustrators of the Art Deco era. He began to study painting in 1900, with the painter Luc-Olivier Merson. Although he is perhaps best known as a portrait painter and a painter of urban views, Boutet de Monvel also produced book illustrations, particularly for children’s books, as well as fashion illustrations. He provided illustrations for Harper’s Bazaar in the 1920’s and 1930’s, and contributed illustrations to the first French edition of Vogue, published in June 1920, for which he continued to illustrate the latest fashions. He was himself a well-known dandy, known for his innate style and elegant dress sense.

Boutet de Monvel was a frequent exhibitor at the Salons in Paris, showing portraits, landscapes and nudes. Boutet de Monvel died in a plane crash in 1949. Works by the artist are today in the collections of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the Bibliothèque Nationale and the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris, as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

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