Jean Théodore Dupas (21 February 1882 – 6 September 1964) was a French painter, artist, designer, poster artist, and decorator in the

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

and

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

styles.

Life

Dupas was born in

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

. During his lifetime he would work as a designer, poster artist, and decorator, and in 1910 he won the

Prix de Rome The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...

. Afterward, he would continue to paint in the Italian city for two years, completing “Le Danse”, the predecessor for his painting “Les Pigeons Blanc” (The White Pigeons) which was awarded the gold medal when it was presented at the

Salon des Artistes Français The Salon (), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art event in the Western world. At the ...

. In 1925, Dupas' work would come to define the Art Deco movement and the school of Bourdeaux. That year he participated at the Grand Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris where he exhibited “Les Perruches” (also known as The Parrots or The Parakeets), which has become one of the most recognizable painting of the Art Deco movement which flourished between the two world wars, was at its highpoint at this exhibition and culminated at the New York World’s Fair in 1939. The Dupas style dominates the advertisement and commercial art for the entire period. In fact, he realized a great quantity of advertising works which appeared even in fashion magazines like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar and, in 1927, he even created a catalog for Max, which is considered a “masterpiece of press advertisement”. Dupas has worked in various exponents of the Nouveau and Deco areas, such as the fashion magazine

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** '' Vogue Adria'', a fashion magazine for former Yugoslav countries ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ' ...

and

Harper's Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' (stylized as ''Harper's BAZAAR'') is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. Bazaar has been published in New York City since November 2, 1867, originally as a weekly publication entitled ''Harper's Bazar''."Corporat ...

. In 1925 at the

Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes The International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts () was a specialized exhibition held in Paris, France, from April 29 (the day after it was inaugurated in a private ceremony by the President of France) to November 8, 1925 (O ...

in Paris, he showed ''Les Perruches'', one of his most famous oil on canvas. In 1927, with the aide of French printing house , he conceived a catalogue for the fur company ''Max''. In the 1930s, Dupas was commissioned by

Frank Pick Frank Pick Royal Institute of British Architects, Hon. RIBA (23 November 1878 – 7 November 1941) was a British transport administrator. After qualifying as a solicitor in 1902, he worked at the North Eastern Railway (UK), North Eastern Ra ...

to produce the artwork for a series of posters for the underground network of London Transport. Dupas expressed his predilection for large-scale projects: "The bigger my work, the happier I am." Thus his collaboration in the decor of famous steamships during the 1930s, emphasizing the

mode of the time. Among these works, the '' SS Île-de-France'' and the '' SS Liberté'' were among the first. In 1934, Dupas created fabulous glass panels, used by Charles Champigneulle for the corners of the Normandie's first-class Grand Salon representing the history of navigation, using a technique known as '' verre églomisé'' in which portions of the pictorial scene were painted in black and various pastel colors on the reverse of plate-glass panels. Just over twenty feet in height, his part of this mural is now exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But in 1935, with the help of glass master Champigneulle, he decorated the grand salon of the ''Normandie'', in more than 400 square meters of painted and frosted glass. He became a member of the

Académie des Beaux-Arts The (; ) is a French learned society based in Paris. It is one of the five academies of the . The current president of the academy (2021) is Alain-Charles Perrot, a French architect. Background The academy was created in 1816 in Paris as a me ...

in 1941.

Works

*Frescos of the Saint-Esprit church, Paris *Frescos of the d'Albert dans la Somme church *Palais royal de Bucarest *Collège Saint Louis, Paris *Frescos of the Claude Monet school, Paris *Great frescos of the ''La vigne et le vin'', in the Aquitaine museum, Bordeaux *Two frescos in the viewing room at the Bordeaux Stock Market Exchange *''La femme en rouge'' (1927), Musée des arts décoratifs, Paris *''La fontaine italienne'' (1926), Musée de Beauvais *''Le char de l'aurore''. This last panel constitute of ''Normandie'' which was exposed at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

in the 2005 exhibition, ''Art Deco Paris''. Today is housed at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh. *Musée Antoine-Lécuyer, Saint Quentin *Musée des arts décoratifs, Bordeaux

References

Sources

*Jacqueline du Pasquier, ''Bordeaux Art Déco'', Éditions Somogy, 1997 *''Affiches de Jean Dupas. Catalogue de l'exposition'', Bordeaux, 1987 *''Les Pages d'or de l'édition française'', Mairie de Paris, 1988 *Patricia Bayer, ''Art déco. Le livre'', Éditions Florilège, 1988 *Louis René Vian, ''Les Arts décoratifs à bord des paquebots français'', Éditions Fonmare, 1992

Links

Bridgeman Images

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dupas, Jean 1882 births 1964 deaths French male painters 20th-century French painters 20th-century French male artists Art Nouveau painters Art Nouveau designers Art Nouveau illustrators French illustrators French designers French poster artists Painters from Bordeaux Art Deco artists Prix de Rome for painting Members of the Académie des beaux-arts