Art Blogging: Jean Despujols

Jean Despujols (1886-1965) was a French Art Deco painter. He studied in Bourdeaux and at the Academy in Paris, where he subsequently won the Prix de Rome in 1914. The First World War, however, interfered in his plans, and he shipped off to his designated army unit. His sketchbook from that era is a testament to the horrors of that war.

After the end of the war, he was able to accept his reward and study in Rome for a year. During the 1930s, a colonial society hired him to travel through and document life in French Indochina. He produced many idealized portraits of doomed French colony. Later, Despujols taught in the United States and eventually became a U.S. citizen.

The Vinyard, oil on canvas, 1925, at the French Consulate to NATO.

Bourdeaux, Museum of Aquitaine.

The Fishing Party, oil on canvas, 1925, Museum of the 1930s.