Leonard Sarluis
1874 – 1949

Sarluis was born in La Haye, Holland in 1874; he was a naturalized French citizen.

He came to Paris at the age of 20, where he was accepted immediately into a group of intellectuals and artists surrounding Oscar Wilde.
Known as something of an aesthete and a dandy, he began exhibiting at the Salon de la Rose Croix and at the Salon des Artistes Français, as well as numerous galleries in London and Paris, including Bernheim Jeune and at Grafton Gallery. Sarluis’ paintings typically feature mythological or symbolical subjects painted in a modern style. In 1928 after six years work, he exhibited in London a spectacular collection of Symbolist paintings, on the exhibition was called l’Interprétation Mystique de la Bible.

Sarluis’ distinct style, almost like painting on porcelain, translated well into the more modern subjects of the 1920’ and 1930’s. His works were shown in an important exhibition at the Centre Georges Pompidou, in 1979, the exhibition was called Paris-Moscou.