Background
Mr. Chahine was born on October 31, 1874, in Vienna, Austria, but moved to Constantinople at a very young age. His father was the director of the Ottoman Bank.
Mr. Chahine was born on October 31, 1874, in Vienna, Austria, but moved to Constantinople at a very young age. His father was the director of the Ottoman Bank.
Edgar Chahine began his studies in Constantinople under the financial support of his father. His artistic abilities were soon noticed by his professor, Melkon Tiratzuyan, who advised him to pursue his studies in Italy in order to participate in a more active artistic environment. He then moved to Venice, Italy where he attended the prestigious Armenian Lyceum Moorat Raphael. Mr. Chahine studied under Antonio Ermolao Paoletti at the famous Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia. After gaining much experience in Italy, he moved to Paris in 1895. He enrolled at the Académie Julian (now part of ESAG Penninghen) and had successful exhibitions at the Society of French Artists. He studied painting under formal instruction there, but his natural ability and his determination to express himself as an artist led him to a personal style based more on the reality of the streets of Paris than the confines of the classroom.
Mr. Chahine began to experiment with the possibilities of printmaking at the age of 25. Although he had already achieved some success with his paintings, he became fascinated with prints and soon worked exclusively in this medium. His prints were very much in demand by collectors and the well-known publisher Edmond Sagot quickly became his dealer. He continued to have exhibitions from 1896 to 1899. In these exhibitions, Edgar Chahine included his art series called "Lamentable Life" which features the tables of poor people.
Edgar Chahine's print oeuvre is an equal representation of elegant Parisian men and women and Bourgeois society, and more common scenes of country fairs and street life. His sympathetic depictions of children, beggars, circus performers and other often forgotten people were engaging and touched the emotions of the observer, while his portrayals of the more fashionable side of Paris accurately captured its "joie de vivre".
The death of his fiancé plunged him into a deep depression, and he left Paris to travel through Italy. This voyage gave him the serenity and the inspiration to begin working with new enthusiasm actually etching the day's drawings onto copper plates in his hotel room each night. He returned with new vigor and expanded his efforts to once again include pastels and oils in his work.
This productivity was not to last, as the combination of terrible events in Armenia and Syria and culminating in the outbreak of the World War I rendered Chahine unable to work. Not until his marriage in 1921 did he begin to make art again. In 1925 he became a French citizen and began a new burst of creative activity in fine prints and illustrated books. Mr. Chahine often turned to Armenian themes.
Many of Edgar Chahine's prints were lost in a fire in his atelier in 1926, and many more were destroyed in a flood in 1942. Due to these unfortunate events, much of his paintings and prints are yet to be seen or discovered.
The Monkeys at the Fair
Paris Under Occupation, the Line for Milk
La Terrasse (Tabanelli 26)
Ada
Femme au Chale
La vallée fertile, près Monte Oliveto Maggiore
Sans Travail
Petit Dejeuner
Croc en jambe
Gigolettes
La Chiffonnière
Sotto Portico Molin, Venice
Lagoon, Venice
Ponte del Bottello, Venice
San Travaso, Venice
Demoiselle au Tennis
Elvira
Le Promenoir
Île de Bréhat
Les Trotteuses
Sujet divers
Vieille Mendiante à l’église
En promenade
Saltimbanque ou La Banquiste
Legrand dans le Juif errant, rôle de Rodin
Portrait de Mme Louise France
La Seine à Courbevoie
Barques et chalutier