Louis Icart "Joy of Life" Borzoi Hounds Art Deco Print, after 1929

Reproduction print after Louis Icart's celebrated 1929 etching "Joy of Life" (French title "Joie de Vivre"), one of the most recognized images from the artist's mature Art Deco period. The composition captures a windswept young woman in a diaphanous chiffon dress and wide-brimmed hat striding across a flowering hilltop with two leashed Borzoi hounds — the long-coated Russian wolfhounds favored by the Romanov court and adopted by Icart as recurring companions to his fashionable subjects throughout the late 1920s. Rendered in a cool palette of greys and atmospheric blues against drifting cloudbanks, the scene distills the post-war modern woman: liberated, in motion, untethered.

The image carries the in-plate "Copyright 1929 by L. Icart - Paris" inscription at the upper left margin and a printed Louis Icart signature at lower right within the platemark. Titled "Joy of Life by Louis Icart" in script beneath the image. Presented behind glass in a slim black frame with a wide cream mat surround. This is a later photomechanical reproduction of the original drypoint etching with aquatint — not a hand-pulled original from Icart's plate, which would carry a blindstamp windmill (Icart's atelier mark) and pencil signature.

CONDITION

Good with wear consistent with age. The print shows mild overall tonal shift suggesting prior light/UV exposure, and the mat displays light surface soiling along the bevel. Frame and glazing are intact with minor handling marks; not examined out of frame.

DIMENSIONS / SPECIFICATIONS

• Frame: 28.5" H × 20.25" W × 0.75" D
• Reproduction print after Louis Icart (French, 1888–1950)
• After the original 1929 drypoint etching with aquatint "Joy of Life" / "Joie de Vivre"
• In-plate inscription upper left: "Copyright 1929 by L. Icart - Paris"
• Printed facsimile signature lower right; titled "Joy of Life by Louis Icart" in script caption
• No visible blindstamp or pencil signature ⚑ (consistent with later reproduction, not original etching)
• Framed behind glass, black wood frame with cream mat
• Not examined out of frame