Five Dutchmen with Hats

Claude Weisbuch was born in Thionville, France in 1927, and was a pupil at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Nancy, France. As a painter, engraver, and lithographer, Weisbuch depicts subjects such as puppets, harlequins, musicians, equestrian scenes, opera, and dancers. In 1961, he received the Critics' Prize. In 1968, he became a full member of the Society of French painters-engravers. A velvety line dominates his work. Using only a few earth tones as well as black and white, Weisbuch emphasized movement and form through line weight and tone. As a theatre and classical music enthusiast, the artist had a flair for what is raw, ecstatic, and controlled. "I like the sketch, the uncompleted the painting filled with mystery." His work is mainly devoted to engraving. According to Patrick Waldberg, "man appears as an obsessive theme in Weisbuch's work, either that he strives to capture it in the mirror by contemplating his own image, or that he surprises him in the features of his visitors, or that he is trying to decipher it among the masters of the past that he worships, Jacques Callot, Rembrandt or Honore Daumier." His works have the appearance of unfinished sketches, mixing few colors but with great liveliness of line. He died in 2014 in Paris.