Leon Shulman Gaspard New Mexico/France/Africa (1882 - 1964)
VILLAGE SCENE
pastel, framed, signed: lower right
sight size: H10 1/2" W13 1/2"

Provenance : Ex-collection of Rouben Mamoulian (1897-1987). Mamoulian, a Russian immigrant who began his directing career with Dubose Heyward's Broadway production of Porgy, continued on to become an important film director in Hollywood.

Other Notes: Leon Shulman Gaspard was born in Vitebsk, Russia and studied under Julius Penn in his hometown with fellow classmate Marc Chagall, the renowned Post-Impressionist painter. He continued his studies in Moscow and Odessa before moving to Paris in 1898 where he enrolled at the Julien Academy, studying alongside noted artist William Bouguereau. During this time, Gaspard sold 35 sketches of Paris to a New Yorker in his first one-man show. In 1908, after a two-year honeymoon in Siberia with his American wife, Gaspard created a series of Siberian-inspired works that were a Parisian success. Gaspard served and was wounded as a French aviator in WWI. He lived in New York from 1916 until 1918 when, by doctor's orders, he moved to the warm climate of Taos, New Mexico. The local Native Americans and western terrain provided inspiration for Gaspard's bright, loose style of painting until his death in 1964. Gaspard has exhibited in the Art Institute of Chicago, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.