An Academy Award winning costume designer for Moulin Rouge, easel and mural painter, illustrator and scenic artist, Marcel Vertes was born in Hungary. His most active years professionally were 1933 to 1952, and he lived in both New York City and Paris, France. In Paris, he was a student at the Academy Julian.
In New York, he was lauded for the original murals at the Cafe Carlyle in the Hotel Carlyle. Vertes was a member of the American Art League, and under the sponsorship of the American Federation of Arts, his work traveled to museums across the country in a celebrity portrait exhibition, “As They Were”.
Awards:
Officer, Legion of Honor, 1955
Two “Oscars,” Academy Awards, for designing film, Moulin Rouge, 1954
Designer, ballets: Paris Opera, 1955;
Scenes: Ringling Bros.-Barnum & Bailey Circus entire show, 1956.
Illustration contributor for Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar.
Sources:
Peter Hastings Falk, Editor, Who Was Who in American Art
