Raphael Kirchner & Georges Leonnec

A little while ago, a friend was having a clear out and sent me a bundle of old postcards. Several French-looking pin ups were soon weeded out for further investigation. They were by two artists, Raphael Kirchner (1876-1917) and Georges Leonnec (1881-1940), who were Austrian and French respectively. Both sets of cards were produced during the First War, although by this time, Kirchner was living in the USA. His cards in particular found their way into the trenches, suggesting that he was one of the first 'pin up' artists. Indeed, all my cards have a tiny pin-hole at one end, so may well have bought a little entertainment to a soldier far from home. All were in rather poor condition, despite being postally unused and were a bit grubby (dirty postcards, indeed!). I have done minimal work in Photoshop as I felt that this would lose some of their character if I tidied them up too much. The first three are by Kirchner, the rest by Leonnec;