JEAN DUPAS (1882-1964)

Origin

Private collection of Mme. V. D., Belgium.

History

On the occasion of the famous 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, the city of Bordeaux moved into one of the four towers reserved for French wines built by the architect Charles Plumet.
The interior decoration of the Pavillon de Bordeaux was commissioned to Pierre Ferret, an architect from Bordeaux who designed the Hôtel Frugès. This ambitious project was intended to be "of a high standard and of great nobility" in his own words.
Four Bordeaux painters, Jean Dupas, François-Maurice Roganeau, Jean Despujols, all three of whom won the Prix de Rome, and Marius de Buzon participated in the decoration of the pavilion by creating monumental allegorical compositions three meters high and eight meters long symbolizing the main economic resources of Bordeaux and Aquitaine.
In the center of the hall of the Bordeaux tower, the Parisian sculptor Alfred Janniot, a close friend of Jean Dupas, created a spectacular polychrome sculpture evoking the vine. The theme of the Landes Forest was given to François-Maurice Roganeau, the Colonies to Marius de Buzon, Agriculture to Jean Despujols and the Vine and Wine to Jean Dupas.
In 1926, the Bordeaux City Council decided to acquire the four paintings to be displayed on the walls of the amphitheater of the Bordeaux Municipal Athenaeum until 1973. After restoration, they were exhibited in the permanent collections of the Aquitaine Museum.