Autoportrait, Circa 1990

Jacques Villon   Master Artists

Jacques Villon, his real name Gaston Emile Duchamp, was born in 1875 in France and died in 1963.

He came from a bourgeois family and was attracted by art, he is the elder brother of Raymond Duchamp-Villon, sculptor, Suzanne Duchamp, painter and of the famous painter, sculptor and author Marcel Duchamp. His artist name is marked by Francois Villon, poet of the Middle Ages, and he paid him tribute in this manner. He began engraving at the age of 16 with the help of his grandfather, an engraver himself.

In 1894, he settled down with his brother Raymond in the Montmartre quarter and continued his law studies at the University of Paris. Still attracted by art, he attended classes at Beaux Arts Paris simultaneously, as his father forced him to continue his education in law. He eventually managed to make his father change his mind and dedicated himself to art by studying at the Cormon Studio.

His career took off as a caricaturist and illustrator for the Parisian press and for making posters. Montmartre was restless those days and Jacques Villon didn't miss a thing, without actually being part of a particular movement. With Degas and Toulouse Lautrec in mind, he began painting at once.

His work was particularly impressive during the Cubist period and the artist stood out with his theoretical research on this subject. Jacques Villon also participated in the fauvism and the abstract impressionism impetus. Picasso and Braque had already launched foundations of cubism when Jacques Villon came along. He offered a different approach, by banking more on dynamism and colors.

Jacques Villon became increasingly famous in U.S.A before Europe and his career made a major turn due to this participation at the Armony Art Show in New York in 1913. His success became known across the Atlantic, due to his work which was presented at the Musée d’art Moderne in Paris.