Albert DECARIS (1901-1988) The double-breasted jacket Drawn around 1928 Pencil signed lower right 63.5 x 48 cm Although he probably preferred to be thought of as an easel painter, Albert Decaris is best known as a genius engraver and illustrator, who trained at the Ecole Estienne and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, where he won the Prix de Rome at the age of eighteen. He then spent five years at the Villa Medici, a stay of vital importance for his work. He earned his living as an illustrator of over two hundred books, and also designed over five hundred postage stamps for the French Post Office.