Louis Marcoussis

Marcoussis is the pseudonym of the French-born Polish painter Ludwik Casimir Markus, who came from a wealthy Jewish family in Warsaw. He moved to Paris in 1903 and gained French nationality thanks to the value demonstrated during World War I. He made his first impressionist paintings and earned money by selling caricatures to satirical magazines, including "La Vie Parisienne" and "Le Journal". He attentively attended Parisian coffees as La Rotonde, Cirque Médrano and L'Ermitage, where he met Edgar Degas around 1906 and Braque, Picasso, Gris and Apollinaire in 1910. Apollinaire, the influential poet of the Calligrams, suggests him to adopt the French pseudonym of "Marcoussis", inspired by a suburb of Paris near Montlhéry. The Apollinaire's influence will never abandon him.