Lotte Reiniger
ANIMATOR/ FILM DIRECTOR (1899 - 1981)
Lotte Reiniger was born in 1899, she was a
German film director and the foremost pioneer
of silhouette animation. Reiniger is most
known for 'The Adventures of Prince Achmed',
made in 1926. and considered one of the
oldest surviving animated films. Using her
invention, she made over 40 films. She
worked in Canada and Britain during the
1930s, where most of her creations were
short films. Her first silhouette colour work
was 'Jack and the Beanstalk' in 1956. Unlike
other artists' works, which relied on facial
expression, Reiniger's depended on gestures
to display actions and emotions. In her
animations, she often used the tool of
metamorphosis. The characters presented
were not always biologically correct, though
they could express fluidity, a mandatory
element of her take on expressionism.
Elsie de Wolfe
INTERIOR DESIGNER (1895 - 1950)
Elsie de Wolfe was an interior designer, her
style was to alter the traditional Victorian
aesthetic introducing open spaces that had
soft, warm colours and undertones of 18th
century French elegance. She started
designing in 1905, and a group of New York
women commissioned her to decorate the first
club exclusively for women, the Colony Club.
The style was the opposite of the heavy
aesthetic of men's clubs, as she introduced a
casual, feminine style creating an illusionistic
indoor garden pavilion. She was also a
volunteer nurse in France during World War 1.
Before her design career, she was an actor,
known for her sophisticated style and
elegance.
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