illiers de l'Isle Adam Emile Samoilovich
(Russian 1843 - 1889)
Biography
Villiers de l’Isle-Adam started his career in the military and taught himself to paint, before receiving a more formal artistic education in Odessa and St. Petersburg, winning awards for his watercolour landscapes. He started to exhibit his work, and his talent for boldly and faithfully reproducing nature was soon recognised. In the early 1880s he developed tuberculosis and travelled to Italy for his health. His scenes of Naples and Palermo from this time show a slightly looser technique. Although he died at a premature age, Villiers de l’Isle-Adam’s contribution to, and influence on, Russian watercolour painting was such that the Society of Russian Watercolourists organised a posthumous exhibition of his work in tribute.