Leon Gaspard

Leon Schulman Gaspard (1 or 2 October 1883 [other sources provide 2 March 1882] - 21 February 1964)[1] was a Russian-born painter, known for his paintings of indigenous cultures and folk traditions.

He tended to paint scenes with throngs of people, and his favorite locations were in small towns in Belarus, Russia, Asia, and Taos, New Mexico.

They eventually settled in Taos, New Mexico, though he continued to devote much of his time to traveling to paint in remote locations.

In 1908, Schulman met Evlyn Gasper, a daughter of a wealthy American widow Eugenia Ward who was visiting Paris.

She married him despite her mother's' objections, on December 24, 1908, at the civil ceremony at the Mayor's office of the 14th arrondissement of the city of Paris.

Later, living in the United States, he used the French-sounding last name to create a fictional biography, claiming that his father was Maxim Gaspard, a wealthy merchant of French descent, with whom young Léon traveled to Siberia.

Gaspard was enchanted by the beauty of this little town, nestled at the foot of the Sangre de Christo mountains.

Leon and Evlyn made three transatlantic voyages: to Eastern China and Mongolia in 1921, the Middle East in 1926, and to North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, and Tunis) in 1932-33.

In October, Schulman and Pfefferman traveled to Vitebsk, where they exhibited their works together with Pen and Yanina Pavlovskaya.

Unlike many of his contemporaries, Gaspard continued to paint Russia, and far off places, rather than focus on the local Native Americans and landscape.

His work sold steadily in New York City, Detroit, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and he was well-known and financially successful.

[33] In November 2013, Nedra Matteucci Galleries held another major exhibition for the artist, Leon Gaspard: Impressions from Russia and the Faraway.