(21 February 1882 – 8 September 1964)
Painter and decorator, exponent of Art Deco in the school of Bourdeaux.
In 1910 he won the Prix de Rome and spent two years in Italy, in Rome, where he finished “Le Danse”, a study for a much greater painting named “Les Pigeons Blanc” (The White Pigeons), last painting done in Rome and presented at the Salon des Artistes Français and won the golden medal with it.
“Les Pigeons Blanc” states Dupas as a painter of success, but the painting was lost and his study, “Le Danse”, is the only witness remaining.
In 1925 he participates at the Grand Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris (from which came the term Art Deco), where he exhibits “Les Perruches”, his most famous painting and most notorious work in the Art Deco movement.
Interior decorator at Ile-de-France, in 1934, he creates fabulous glass panels for the Grand Salon. Parts of this mural are now exposed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Dupas style dominates the advertisment and commercial art for the entire period. In fact, he realized a great quantity of advertising works which appeared even in fashion magazines like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar and, in 1927, he even created a catalog for Max, which is considered a “masterpiece of press advertisement”.
It’s easy recognizing a “Dupas woman”: the hair are cut, the eyes are almond-shaped, the lips are small but full and the neck is always stretched.
Dupas became a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1941.
