Barbier, George.  (1882 – 1932)

Displayed on our website as present or past stock – ‘Designs on the Dances of Vaslav Nijinsky’- 7 separate pochoirs from this series / ‘Les Bienfaits de la Paix’ – pochoir /‘Les Pleureuses’ – pochoir

Barbier, one of the greatest exponents of late Art Nouveau / Art Deco graphic imagery, excelled and was prolific in his work as an illustrator and designer for contemporary fashions, posters, magazine covers, and the theatre. He designed costumes for the Folies-Bergeres, the  Casino de Paris and, a special source of inspiration for him –  the Ballets Russes, for which he was also a set designer. On this website we have, alongside other Barbier works, several of his dramatic depictions of Nijinsky dancing some of his most famous Ballets Russes roles. Barbier has become now an iconic figure in respect to the visual culture of the ’20s and ’30s. The stylized, decorative nature of his work has been increasingly utilized in the last few years by the producers of greetings cards, in fact it is probably unusual now not to find a Barbier image in any specialist card shop.

Much of George Barbier’s work was created through the medium of the Pochoir Print. In this method a stencil is used, allowing the artist to hand colour the print using watercolour or gouache. The technique was especially popular in the earlier part of the twentieth century.