Painter · American
Attested lodger
Louis Paul Dessar
Eight months at Giverny, and what he brought back was the village’s peasant life, not its gardens.
- Dates1867 — 1952
- NationalityAmerican
- DisciplinePainter
- Place of birthIndianapolis, Indiana, United States
Biography
Louis Paul Dessar was born at Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1867 and died at Preston, Connecticut, in 1952. He reached Paris in the autumn of 1886. The Smithsonian American Art Museum holds his “A Load of Brush” (inv. 1929.6.25) and “Return to the Fold” (inv. 1909.7.18).
Giverny
The Smithsonian American Art Museum writes that he left in the autumn of 1891 for an eight-month stay at Giverny, before settling at Étaples in 1892. There, the Terra Foundation writes, he developed a poetic appreciation of rural life — haystacks, peasant women, carts, rather than gardens.
Relation with the Hôtel Baudy
One line, the name misspelt as so often: “M. et Mme. Dessart, Amerique, 8–20 mars 1893”. Twelve days, with his wife, in the depth of winter.
Principal works
Key points
- 1867Born — Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
- Givernyeight months from the autumn of 1891
- 1952Died
Sources
- 01Smithsonian American Art Museum, Louis Paul Dessar
- 02Terra Foundation for American Art, “Impressionist Giverny: American Painters in France, 1885–1915”, exhibition texts
- 03Hôtel Baudy guest register, “Registre pour inscrire les voyageurs”, Philadelphia Museum of Art; transcribed by Carol Lowrey in William H. Gerdts, Monet’s Giverny, Abbeville Press, 1993, pp. 222-227.
- 04Lena M. Cooper, “Louis Paul Dessar and His Work”, Brush & Pencil, vol. V, no. 3, December 1899, pp. 97-106
From the register
Under the same roof
The painters whose stay overlaps this one. The register establishes that they lodged in the house on the same days, and nothing more.
- Dawson Dawson-Watson 13 days from March 8, 1893 to March 20, 1893