Georges Kars (Georges Karpeles or Georg Karpeles - Jiří Karpeles) (2 May 1880, other sources 1882 – 5 February 1945) was a Czech painter known for his landscapes and nude paintings.

Life

Georges Kars was born to a German Jewish family in Kralupy. His father was a miller. When he was 18, Kars was sent to study in art in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

with

Heinrich Knirr Heinrich Knirr (2 September 1862 – 26 May 1944) was an Austrian-born German painter, known for genre scenes and portraits, although he also did landscapes and still-lifes. He is best-known for creating the official portrait of Adolf Hitler fo ...

and

Franz von Stuck Franz von Stuck (February 23, 1863 – August 30, 1928), born Franz Stuck, was a German painter, sculptor, printmaker, and architect. Stuck was best known for his paintings of ancient mythology, receiving substantial critical acclaim with '' The ...

. From 1905 he travelled to

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

where he met

Juan Gris José Victoriano González-Pérez (23 March 1887 – 11 May 1927), better known as Juan Gris (; ), was a Spanish painter born in Madrid who lived and worked in France for most of his active period. Closely connected to the innovative artistic ge ...

and immersed himself in the painting styles of Velasquez and

Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and e ...

. In 1908, Kars arrived in Paris and settled in

Montmartre Montmartre ( , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank. The historic district established by the City of Paris in 1995 is bordered by Rue Ca ...

at the time of the Cubist revolution, which also had an influence on his work, and he met

Suzanne Valadon Suzanne Valadon (23 September 18657 April 1938) was a French painter who was born Marie-Clémentine Valadon at Bessines-sur-Gartempe, Haute-Vienne, France. In 1894, Valadon became the first woman painter admitted to the Société Nationale des ...

and

Maurice Utrillo Maurice Utrillo (), born Maurice Valadon; 26 December 1883 – 5 November 1955), was a French painter of the School of Paris who specialized in cityscapes. Born in the Montmartre quarter of Paris, France, Utrillo is one of the few famous pain ...

. His work was interrupted by the First World War which he spent on the Galician Front and in Russian captivity. He renewed his friendship with

Pascin Julius Mordecai Pincas (March 31, 1885 – June 5, 1930), known as Pascin (; erroneously or ), Jules Pascin, or the "Prince of Montparnasse", was a Bulgarian artist known for his paintings and drawings. He later became an American citizen ...

and frequented

Chagall Marc Chagall; russian: link=no, Марк Заха́рович Шага́л ; be, Марк Захаравіч Шагал . (born Moishe Shagal; 28 March 1985) was a Russian-French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with se ...

Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire) of the Wąż coat of arms. (; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic of Polish descent. Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of th ...

Max Jacob Max Jacob (; 12 July 1876 – 5 March 1944) was a French poet, painter, writer, and critic. Life and career After spending his childhood in Quimper, Brittany, he enrolled in the Paris Colonial School, which he left in 1897 for an artistic ca ...

, the art critic Maurice Raynal and the Greek painter Demetrius Galanis. He spent the summer of 1923 in Ségalas, Hautes-Pyrénées region, with Suzanne Valadon’s family. An exhibition of his work took place at the

Berthe Weill Berthe Weill ( Paris 1865 – 1951) was a French art dealer who played a vital role in the creation of the market for twentieth-century art with the manifestation of the Parisian Avant-Garde. Although she is much less known than her well-establ ...

gallery in 1928. In 1933, he bought a house in Tossa de Mar near Barcelona. Along with a group of artists ( Rafael Benet, Enric Casanovas and Alberto del Castillo) he inaugurated the Museu Municipal De Tossa Del Mar on 1 September 1935 as a modern art museum. He returned to live in Caulaincourt street in Montmartre, Paris, in 1936. When

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

started and Germany occupied Paris, he took refuge in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

, where he started to draw children with a sad expression. In December 1942 he moved to the safety of his sister's home in Switzerland. Away from France, he made a large number of drawings and paintings depicting refugees seeking shelter. He committed suicide in Geneva on 5 February 1945, most likely after receiving news of the deaths of relatives. Florent Fels, who met Georges Kars before 1930, writes:

Although I lived in the strangest environment of Montmartre, next to artists with the most twisted mind, Kars stands there, singularly well balanced. He is so witty that he could be a cousin of
Hoffmann Hoffmann is a German language, German surname. People A *Albert Hoffmann (horticulturist), Albert Hoffmann (1846–1924), German horticulturist *Alexander Hoffmann (politician), Alexander Hoffmann (born 1975), German politician *Arthur Hoffmann ...
's. We always expect him, just like the magician from Königsberg to create a burlesque miracle like turning the Sacré-Coeur church into an illuminated pool for the One Thousand and One Nights or to create some tales worthy of The Serapion Brethren.''Georges Kars'' by Florent Fels, Editions Le Triangle

When his wife Nora died in 1966, the contents of his atelier were auctioned at the Palais Galliera in Paris. Pierre Levy, a French industrialist and art collector, and Oscar Ghez acquired an important part of the artworks. In 1983 the Modern Art Museum of Troyes staged the first Kars retrospective.

Gallery

Georges Kars, Portrét dámy v klobouku, 1908, VMG235.jpg, ''Portrait of a lady in a hat'', 1908 Georges_Kars,_U_svačiny,_1908.jpg, ''U svačiny'', 1908 Georges Kars, Zátiší se zelenou sklenicí, 1914.jpg, ''Still life with a green glass'', 1914 Georges_Kars,_Akty_(Vraždění_neviňátek,_Únos_Sabinek),_1919.jpg, ''Nudes (Murder of Innocents, Abduction of Sabinek)'', 1919 Georges_Kars,_Nu_assis.jpg, ''Seated Nude'', 1921 Georges Kars, Portrét paní Suvičové - Černé rukavice, 1933.jpg, ''Portrait of Mrs. Suvičová - Black gloves'', 1933 Georges_Kars,_Ráno,_1933,_M_-_277.jpg, ''Ráno'', 1933 Georges Kars, Autoportrait (l'Homme à la pipe), 1939, MNLP 179.jpg, ''Self portrait'', 1939 Georges Kars, La robe pointillée.jpg, ''La robe pointillée'', 1939 Georges Kars, Landscape in Southern France.jpg, ''Landscape in Southern France''

References

Biography on artnet

Ecole de Paris website

Life

Gallery

References

Further reading