Leon Zack (1892 – 1980)

School of Paris painter, sculptor, illustrator and designer. Born at Nijni-Novgorod in Russia. Studied literature at Moscow University and painting under Rerberg and Nachkoff. Left Russia in 1920 and spent two years in Florence and one in Berlin, where he designed sets and costumes for the Ballets Romantiques Russes. Settled in Paris 1923.

First one-man exhibition at the Galerie d'Art Contemporain, Paris, 1926. Painted in representational styles for many years: faces of restless, dreamy youths, pictures of harlequins, vagabonds and gypsies. Became a French citizen in 1938.

Took refuge at Villefranche-sur-Mer and a village in the Isère 1940-5, then returned to Paris. Designed sets and costumes ...