LEON GASPARD

(1882 - 1964)

Leon Gaspard was born near Moscow, Russia, in 1882, to parents that encouraged his artistic talents and his move to Paris to study at the Academie Julian at age seventeen. He studied there for nearly eight years, and independently worked with notable artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau. Gaspard was enthralled by the creative climate and the creativity that was around him. For several years he studied and showed his works at the Paris Salon.

Gaspard met his wife, American Ballet dancer Evelyn Adell, in Paris in 1908. They enjoyed an unusual honeymoon, a two year horseback trip through Siberia. This was an area that Gaspard had visited frequently with his father, a fur trader, as a child.

In 1914, Gaspard enlisted in the French Aviation Corps and was severely injured in an aviation accident in 1915. His wife returned to America, and he joined her in 1916 in New York where he became increasingly successful, exhibiting his paintings at the National Academy of Design and the Vanderbilt Gallery.

They visited Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico, before permanently settling in Taos in 1918, where the climate was warmer and aided his recovery. In Taos, Gaspard was fascinated by the indigenous people and their folk traditions, costumes, and rituals. He was inspired to learn about the Native Americans' culture and to paint scenes that featured the local landscape and its people. He and Evelyn also continued to travel extensively and he visited and sketched in such far-off locations as Japan, Peking, Inner Mongolia, the Gobi desert, and Tibet. Between 1926 and 1931, he built his home, now listed on the National Register for Historic Places as The Leon Gaspard House in Taos.

While living in Taos, in addition to painting the local people and nearby area, he continued to create works that focused on other remote locations and their indigenous people, including Russia.

His classic Impressionist style incorporates rich, bright, vibrant colors, close attention to light and atmospheric effects, and loose brushstrokes.

For additional information about this artist, visit:

www.leongaspardpaintings.com
Leon Gaspard – Wikipedia
Book – Leon Gaspard “The Call of Distant Places”
Stark Museum of Art Collection
American Artists from the Russian Empire

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