Jean Carzou

Internationally renowned artist Jean Carzou, whose works graced the novels of literary giants like Ernest Hemingway, adorned Paris opera houses and captured the passion of saints on chapel walls, died August 12, 2000 in Perigeaux, France.Carzou, who was a member of France’s Academie des Beaux-arts and decorated with the National Order of Merit was 97 years old.Carzou mastered a number of mediums, though his line drawings and engravings would become well known as illustrations for some of the 20th century’s most revered writers, including Hemingway, Albert Camus, Ionesco and Rimbaud. Carzou produced stunning work of painted glass and porcelain, in pencils, gauche and pastels as well as oils, often choosing to work on textured or irregular fabrics and papers rather than traditional canvas.His work on the Chapel de Manosque, one of the oldest churches in France, became his own fitting tribute when it was dedicated as the Museum de Jean Carzou in 1995.Over the course of his long career, which began with his first formal exhibition in 1939, Carzou received many honors throughout the world, including 3 Hallmark Prizes for painting, Japan’s Education Prize, Brussells’ Grand Prize of Europe, and the Grand Prize of the Ile de France. In 1976 Carzou became the first living artist to have his work appear on a French postage stamp.Jean Carzou, who remained active in his work and the management of his collections which now have permanent homes in America, Great Britain, Egypt, Japan and his adopted homeland, France, died of conditions attributed to old age in Perigeaux on August 12, 2000.