23 Facts About Leon Dabo

Leon Dabo was an American tonalist landscape artist best known for his paintings of New York State, particularly the Hudson Valley.

Leon Dabo's paintings were known for their feeling of spaciousness, with large areas of the canvas that had little but land, sea, or clouds.

Leon Dabo's father Ignace Scott Dabo was a professor of aesthetics and a classical scholar, who moved the family to Detroit, Michigan in 1870 to escape the Franco-Prussian War.

Leon Dabo supplemented Leon's formal education with Latin, French, and drawing.

Leon Dabo then became a student of John LaFarge, and the two of them would remain close friends until LaFarge's death.

When Leon Dabo decided to pursue studies in Paris, LaFarge wrote letters of introduction, enabling Leon Dabo to meet Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, who would become his mentor, and to gain entry to the Ecole nationale superieure des arts decoratifs.

Leon Dabo studied part-time at the Academie Colarossi and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.

Leon Dabo studied briefly at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich, but the nascent form of German Expressionism did not appeal to him and he moved on to Italy, where he stayed for three years.

Leon Dabo returned in New York in 1890 and began his career as a muralist, but by the beginning of the 20th century had turned to painting landscapes instead.

For years, Leon Dabo's paintings were rejected for exhibition by the major juries of the United States, until respected French painter Edmond Aman-Jean recognized his talents and began showing Leon Dabo's work in France, whereupon he became a major success.

Leon Dabo's work was on display in museums all around the world, including Musee du Luxembourg, the National Gallery of Canada, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Leon Dabo even held power of attorney to act as Scott's representative with prospective buyers in Europe.

When Scott went to study in Paris in 1902, Leon Dabo wrote letters of introduction on his behalf.

However, reviews in the press were usually more favorable to Leon Dabo, buyers were more interested in Leon Dabo's work, and it sold for more as well.

Finally at one point, the youngest brother Louis returned from Europe with a new power of attorney statement placing himself in charge of Scott's work, charging that Leon Dabo had imitated Scott's style, undermined him with buyers, and misappropriated the proceeds from the sales of Scott's work.

In that same year Leon Dabo became the leader of The Pastellists, a somewhat radical artist exhibition society.

Leon Dabo was an initial exhibitor at the MacDowell Club in their non-juried exhibitions, the brainchild of the Ashcan School's Robert Henri.

Leon Dabo hosted several of its earliest meetings in his studio, but he was back in Europe before the show opened.

Leon Dabo ended up serving as an officer in the French and British Armies successively and exposed a number of German spies, using his ear for dialect and accent.

Leon Dabo even played the role of spy once, going behind German lines to gain information.

Leon Dabo was commissioned as a captain in the United States Army and served as an interpreter for the American Expeditionary Force as well as an aide-de-camp to Major General Mark L Hersey of the 4th Infantry Division.

Leon Dabo began to feel that American men had become too materialistic, but women, he felt, were of a more spiritual nature, and could "save" art from indifference.

Leon Dabo escaped the German occupation of France in late 1940, through Portugal.