Jean Despujols Explained

Jean Despujols (Salles en Gironde 19 March 1886-Shreveport, 1965) was a French, later naturalised American, painter.

He was a pupil of Paul Quinsac at the école des Beaux-Arts of Bordeaux. In 1914 he won the Prix de Rome for painting but the outbreak of World War I suspended the French residencies at the villa Médicis. He had his stay in Rome after the war with his fellow painter Jean Dupas. His associations with America began in 1924-1936 as a teacher of the American art students sent to study at the École des Beaux-Arts de Fontainebleau.

In 1936, he won the Prix de l'Indochine, and was selected by the Grand Conseil Economique of French Indochina to undertake a tour of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos painting and drawing what he saw.^{[1] [2] [3]}

When World War II broke out he emigrated to America, settling in Louisiana, and is buried at Greenwood Cemetery, Shreveport.^[4] The Texas oil millionaire Algur H. Meadows acquired a 360-piece collection of oil paintings and watercolors in 1969 and the Meadows Museum of Art at Centenary College of Louisiana was built to house these paintings.^[5]

Notes and References

1. Insiders' Guide to Shreveport - Page 91 David Otto - 2010 MEADOWS MUSEUM OF ART AT CENTENARY COLLEGE FREE 2911 Centenary Blvd., Shreveport [phone] www.centenary.edu/meadows In 1936, French artist Jean Despujols was selected by the Grand Conseil Economique of ...
2. Earth in flower: the divine mystery of the Cambodian dance drama Paul Cravath - 2007 Certainly they made a deep impression on an eminent painter commissioned by the Grand Conseil Economique of French ... His name was Jean Despujols, and he spent twenty months (December 1936-August 1938) in some of the remotest ..."
3. Hommage à Raphaël: : Volume 1 Galeries nationales du Grand Palais (France) - 1983 Historique : Soumis le 16 mai 1936 à la Société des Artistes Coloniaux de Paris qui charge alors Despujols, à la requête du Grand Conseil Économique d'Indochine, d'une mission documentaire en Extrême-Orient (?); don au musée, 1936."
4. Early History of Monroe - Page 24 Sylvester Breard - 2011 "Jean Despujols made Shreveport his home for many years. He is buried at Greenwood Cemetery, Shreveport, Louisiana. He was educated in France and Italy and was an acclaimed artist in his native France"
5. Louisiana - Page 375 Richard Bizier - 1999 -"Interesting collection of 360 works by American painter Jean Despujols depicting lndochina in the thirties."