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Leon Gaspard
The Call of Distant Places
by Forrest Fenn and Carleen Milburn
Published by: The Tia Collection
Imprint: The Tia Collection
408 Pages | 11 x 12 | 165 color and 106 b&w illus.
$85.00
Leon Shulman Gaspard (1882–1964) was an interesting addition to the New Mexico arts scene when he arrived in 1918. A Russian-born, French-trained veteran of the airborne campaigns of the Great War, he arrived physically diminished from a horrific plane crash that had put him in a French hospital for two years. Seeking a more hospitable climate, he arrived in Taos to find a vibrant arts community and an exotic blend of native, western, and Hispanic cultures.
Having traveled widely throughout Russia, China, Mongolia, Tibet, Morocco, and Northern Africa as a fur trader, painter, army pilot and spy, Gaspard had a love of exotic cultures and a desire to document them artistically. Taos allowed him just such an opportunity, and he set out to paint the Native Americans in much the same way he had painted the native peoples of North Africa and Asia while in Paris.
A pariah of sorts when he first arrived, Gaspard was saved socially when Herbert Dunton, one of the founding members of the Taos Society of Artists, took a liking to him and began to bring him around to meet his colleagues. A kindly and gregarious man, Gaspard eventually became accepted and well liked, and one of the most important of the many distinguished artists that made Taos their home in the early part of the twentieth century.
Having traveled widely throughout Russia, China, Mongolia, Tibet, Morocco, and Northern Africa as a fur trader, painter, army pilot and spy, Gaspard had a love of exotic cultures and a desire to document them artistically. Taos allowed him just such an opportunity, and he set out to paint the Native Americans in much the same way he had painted the native peoples of North Africa and Asia while in Paris.
A pariah of sorts when he first arrived, Gaspard was saved socially when Herbert Dunton, one of the founding members of the Taos Society of Artists, took a liking to him and began to bring him around to meet his colleagues. A kindly and gregarious man, Gaspard eventually became accepted and well liked, and one of the most important of the many distinguished artists that made Taos their home in the early part of the twentieth century.
Forrest Fenn is the founder and former proprietor of the renowned Fenn Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is the author of ten books, including the best-selling The Thrill of the Chase, which is both an autobiography and the story of a hidden treasure in the mountains north of Santa Fe.
Carleen Milburn is a writer and rancher who lives in Montana.