Born in Vienna in 1905, Louis Kahan began sketching at an early age, using as subjects the visitors to his father's tailoring business, including many well known musical identities of the time.  At twenty Kahan left Vienna for Paris, where he worked first as a tailor, then designer. During this period Kahan came into contact with several heroes of the contemporary art world, including Matisse, Vlaminck and Dufy.

With the outbreak of war in 1939 Kahan enlisted in the French Foreign Legion, and was sent to North Africa as an army artist. In 1942, while working as an interpreter and draughtsman for the US Army, he staged his first solo exhibition in Oran.   From 1943 until 1945 Kahan worked as a voluntary artist for the Red Cross, making portraits of wounded servicemen in French and American hospitals. This experience developed his ability to capture the essence of his subject in a minimum of time. After the war Kahan returned to Paris, where he studied and made his first prints while working as an illustrator at Le Figaro.

Three Girls Resting

In 1947 he travelled across the USA before arriving in Perth, where his parents and sister had earlier settled, and where he learned to paint the Australian cityscape. Three years later, Kahan moved to Melbourne. Over the next few years Kahan extended his artistic repertoire from painting and printmaking to include designing stained glass.  In 1962 Kahan's dedication to portraiture was rewarded with the Archibald Prize, for his painting of Patrick White.  Throughout his career, Kahan has defied demarcations between art, design and tailoring. His early profession has continued to impact on his art, to the point at which his unbroken line drawings emerge as randomly arranged threads, and tools of the trade become subjects.

Kahan's works can be found in all major Australian galleries, as well as several overseas, including the Biblioteche Nationale in Paris, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the US Army Center for Military History in Washington DC. In 1993 Louis Kahan was made an officer of the Order of Australia.

Wedding Feast at Canna