1867-1952

LOUIS PAUL DESSAR

(1867-1952)

Louis Paul Dessar was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, and when he was six years old he moved to New York City with his parents.  As a child he showed an interest in art, and in 1883 he enrolled at the National Academy of Design.  Like many of his peers, Dessar pursued art study in Paris, and he studied at both the Academie Julian, where he was a student of Adolphe William Bouguereau and Joseph Nicolas Robert-Fleury, and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.  Other than a brief trip to New York in 1891 when he got married, Dessar remained abroad for several years and maintained a summer home in Etaples, France, in the 1890s.  During these years, he painted portraits in New York in the winter and in the summer, the French countryside and its rural inhabitants, including peasants, fishermen, shepherds, or others enjoying leisure time in the country.  Many of Dessar’s works from this period beautifully capture the moody light effects of dusk and moonlight.

Dessar purchased an estate in Lyme in 1901 and remained there until just before his death.  Throughout the 1920s, he maintained his New York studio and spent time there during some winters.  Dessar’s paintings from his Lyme years are Tonalist landscapes in the Barbizon tradition, paintings inspired by the work of Henry Ward Ranger and other Lyme artists.  In these later works, Dessar handles themes and moods similar to those found in his French paintings.  On his estate in Lyme, for example, he kept livestock so that his subjects would be close at hand, and he continued to portray farmers toiling in the evening hours.

Memberships

Society of American Artists, New York, NY

National Academy of Design, New York, NY

Salmagundi Club, New York, NY

Lyme Art Association, Lyme, CT

Awards

Paris Salon, medals (1891, 1900)

Columbian Exposition, medal (1893)

Honorable Mention (Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1897)

Second Hallgarten Prize (National Academy of Design, 1900)

Select Public Collections

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY