Painter, muralist and lithographer, a distinguished artist known to museums, curators and collectors worldwide. An American artist born in France, Dabo’s active career in art extended over a period of 80 years. He painted both in New York and France between the two world wars. He studied with some of the most influential painters of his day, John La Farge, Puvis de Chavannes, James Abbott McNeill Whistler. Dabo’s first teacher in New York City was John La Farge [1835-1910] where he followed La Farge’s artistic philosophy, that art should embody “more than a mere representation of external appearances,” that views of nature should transcend the physical and appeal to ones emotion. La Farge is also credited with Dabo’s introduction to flower painting. In his early years in Paris, Dabo was a protégé of the renowned painter and muralist Puvis de Chavannes [1824-1898] many of his early landscapes owes much to his mentor in muted tonality, and evoking a dreamy quiet mood. In 1888 Dabo settled in London where he associated with such artistic personalities as James McNeill Whistler, Walter Sickert, George Bernard Shaw, Alvin Langdon Coburn, among others. But it was James McNeill Whistler [1834-1903] who had a profound and lasting influence on Dabo’s art. He closely followed Whistler’s theory of “Art for Art’s sake,” showing the close relationship between the soft, tonal quality of color with the careful placement of composition into decorative and harmonious elements. He was involved with and participated in two of the major events in the American Art scene; the Independents of 1910, and the Armory Show of 1913. His travels abroad between 1917-1920 as a member of the American financial Mission to the Allies, allowed him to meet other important artist’s of the day, and to study their work. He was commissioned by the Army’s Fourth Division under Major General Mark L. Hersey to execute five paintings depicting landscapes of historic sites during the first World War. Dabo continued to paint and exhibit in this country and Europe until his death in 1960, where he strove to realize new color sensations, mastering his use of light, texture and atmosphere. His works are owned by over thirty museums in this country and abroad, among them; The National Museum of American art, Washington D.C. “Evening on the Hudson”. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, “The Cloud”, “New York Harbor from the Jersey Shore“, “Marine”; Musee D’Orsay, Paris, France “Moore Park”; and the Musee de Lourve, Paris, France, “Citadel”. During his life he was awarded the Cross of Knight of the French Legion of Honor for his contribution to art; He was a member of the National Academy of Design New York; Societe National des Beaux Arts, Paris; Societe des Amis des Arts, Versailles; Allied Artists Association, London; President of The Pastellists, New York; The New York Historical Society; Four Arts Society, New York; University Club, Paris; Association of Italian Artists, Florence, Italy; and a Life Member of the National Arts Club, New York. Dr Kevin Avery, associate curator in the department of American Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, wrote in a museum catalogue in 1999: “No landscape painter associated with Tonalism aligned himself so unmistakeably and consistently with Whistler than did Leon Dabo.” The New York Times in it’s review of his Floral Etudes, drawings, and Pastels at M. Knoedler Company, New York City in 1933, wrote; “A distinct contribution to be associated with the flower harmonies of Odilon Redon and of Fantin-Latour.” Permanent Collections Baltimore Museum, Baltimore, MD The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY Davenport Museum of Art, Davenport, IA The Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, MI Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, CN Fogg Art Museum, Boston, MA The Herbert L. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY Imperial Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN Memorial Art Gallery of The University of Rochester, NY The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ Montreal Art Association, Montreal, Canada Musée d’Louvre, Paris, France Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France Museum of Art, Oran, Algeria Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA Museum of the City of New York, New York, NY Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, MI National Arts Club, New York, NY National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada Newark Museum, Newark, NJ New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ Reading Public Museum, Reading, PA Saginaw Art Association, Muncie, IN The Saint Louis Art Museum, St Louis, MO Sheldon Swope Art Museum, Terre Haute, IN Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, IL The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, AL University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann CHRONOLOGY 1865 Leon Dabo was born in France on July 9th. In 1870, the Dabo family emigrated to America where Leon began his artistic training with his father, a painter and architectural decorator. 1883 Dabo moved to New York City. There, he worked for the architectural design firm of J&R Lamb and continued his studies at the Art Student League of New York. Through his association with J&R Lamb, Dabo was introduced to John La Farge [1834-1910], subsequently becoming his pupil. La Farge became Dabo’s most enduring mentor. La Farge and Dabo would collaborate on several projects in architectural design, mural work and stained glass design. La Farge is also credited with Dabo’s introduction to flower painting. When Dabo decided to continue his studies in Europe, La Farge gave him letters of introduction and recommendation to a number of distinguished artists, among them Puvis de Chavannes [1824-1898]. 1885-1892 Dabo lived and worked abroad, studying in Paris at the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs, the Ecole des Beaux Arts and the Academie Julian under Daniel Vierge and Pierre Galland. Privately he studied with the symbolist painter, Puvis de Chavannes. In Florence he studied mosaic technique at the Medici Palace and in Rome he studied mural design and executed murals with Pietro Gagliardi. In London, Dabo was a frequent visitor to Whistlers studio, where he admitted “being Whistler’s pupil meant sweeping his studio, going out for vermillion and paying for a tube without being reimbursed.” The influence of Whistler on Dabo’s art is immeasurable. 1892-1904 Back in New York, Dabo continued his association with J&R Lamb and with John La Farge. His important commissions were the murals for St. John the Baptist Church, Brooklyn, NY; The Capitol Building, Harrisburg, PA; Holy Cross Church, Flatbush, NY, and for the Roswell P. Flower Library in Watertown, NY. 1905 Dabo was invited to exhibit his paintings at the National Arts Club in New York, being favorably received by critics and public alike, this effort began his assent to prominence as an important landscape painter. At this time he became acquainted with the critic J. Nilson Laurvik, and his long time patron Sir William Van Horne. 1906-1909 Dabo had solo exhibits in New York, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles before traveling to England with Alvin Langdon Coburn and George Bernard Shaw. As a guest at the estate of Lord Ebury, Dabo painted Moore Park, which was later purchased by the Luxembourg, Museum in Paris, now in the collection of the Musee D’Orsay, Paris. More exhibitions followed at the Goupil Gallery in London and again at the National Arts Club in New York. In 1908 Dabo showed three paintings in the Contemporary Art exhibit at the National Arts Club in New York where he was awarded the William T. Evans Prize. In 1909, Mr. Evans subsequently donated Evening on the Hudson to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. 1910 Dabo participated in the “Independents” exhibit organized by “The Eight” in New York City. He exhibited at the Allied Artists Association in London and at the Berlin Academy of Art to enthusiastic reviews by such acclaimed critics as Sadakichi Hartman, Royal Cortissoz and J. Nilson Laurvik and patrons such as Hugo Reisinger and William T. Evans. Paul Clemens, chairman of the German Imperial Art commission said of Dabo, “He is perhaps the most brilliant figure among the young generation of New York landscape painters. He is the most striking individual and finest colorists of all.” 1911-1913 An activist in the growing contemporary and modern art movements, Dabo was an organizer of several exhibitions of new artists. He was the president of The Pastellists, which included several members of “The Eight”. Dabo was one of the principle organizers of the Armory Show of 1913. Many of the preliminary meetings were held at his studio on 23rd street. He was appointed to two committees; the executive, with Jerome Meyers, and the publicity, with George Bellows, John Sloan and Guy Pene du Bois. He exhibited four paintings there, one of which Canadian Night was bought by Mrs. Payne Whitney. 1914 Dabo's painting, The Cloud, was purchased by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 1917-1920 Dabo traveled abroad as a member of the American Financial Mission to the allies. His linguistic abilities led to service in the French, British and American armies as Captain during the First World War. It was at this time he was commissioned by the Army’s Fourth division to paint from life five landscapes of historic sites. Upon his return to New York, concerned about art education in America, Dabo lectured extensively on art at Columbia University, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 1921-1932 Dabo moved on to a new kind of expression in his art, the paint is applied in a new way, emphasis was placed on surface quality and mass, form and line take precedence. These changes reflect his contact in his early years abroad with Cezanne, Monet, and Degas. Working extensively along the east coast of America, from Long Island sound to Maine, Dabo painted many plein air etudes favoring still-life, works on paper, oil studies of clouds, rock formations, mountains, and the sea. Starting in the late 1920s Dabo joined the artist colonies of Connecticut, teaching and painting in the Litchfield Hills from 1928 – 1932. 1933-1936 Dabo exhibited, for the first time ever, his flower paintings and pastels at M. Knoedler & Company New York. Many of these floral works show the influence of his early mentor John La Farge, his admiration of the symbolist Odilon Redon, his love of the Oriental Masters, and his contact abroad with the French Impressionists. The works were well received by critics, the New York Times in it’s review stated: “A distinct contribution to be associated with the flower harmonies of Odilon Redon and of Fantin Latour.” In 1934 Dabo was elected associate member of the National Academy of Design, New York and he was awarded the Cross of Knight of the French Legion of Honor for his contribution to art. 1937-1940 Dabo returned to France and established a studio. While there, he painted the Normandy coast, the French Alps, Tallories, Lac Annecy, St. Tropez and Caigne. He was awarded the Gold medal at the Societe National des beaux Arts, Paris, and a Silver Medal at the Societe des Amis de Art, Versailles. Before leaving occupied France in 1940, Dabo aided with the transportation of art works by Walter Sickert and Fernand Léger among others, out of France and saving them from probable confiscation. 1941-1947 Back in the United States, He again returns to paint his beloved Hudson river, only this time reinterpreting its banks and surrounding landscapes with dramatic explorations of light and shadow. He helped organize the Four Arts Aid Association, a committee to send aid to artists in occupied France. In 1944, Dabo was elected Academician of the national Academy of Design, New York. 1948-1951 Dabo returned to France for the last time. While there he painted many canvases of the French countryside, particularly of Mont Ste. Victoire and its environs, a subject studied extensively by his old friend Cezanne. These Paintings were so successful, he was invited to participate in the exhibition titled “Painters of Mont Ste. Victoire: Tribute to Cezanne, held at the Musee Garnet in Aix-en Provence in 1951. 1960 At the age of 95, Dabo saw his work included in the Fiftieth anniversary of the Exhibition of Independent Artist in 1910 held at the Delaware Art Center Wilmington; and the Graham Gallery, New York. Dabo died in New York City on November 7tth. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY (LEON DABO, 1865-1960) The International Studio London, December 1905 Brush and Pencil Chicago, January 1906 James Pattison, Director Chicago Museum of Art The Paintings of Leon Dabo Chicago, October 1906 Art Bulletin New York, November 1906 World Today Chicago, January 1907 El Diario Illustrado Mexico, March 24, 1907 The Scrip New York, June 1907 Sketch Book Chicago, November 1907 John Spargo, Leon Dabo ‘Poet in Color’ The Craftsman vol.x111 December 1907 Kunst Fur Alle Munich, December 1907 The Spectator Portland Oregon, 1907 Success New York, March 1908 The International Studio Leon Dabo - Landscape Painter J. Nielson Lauvrik January, 1910 The Connoisseur London, June 1910 Masterpieces of American Art Christian Briton London, 1910 The Whistler Book Sadakichi Hartmann Boston, 1910 The New York Times November 21, 1912 New York American March 26, 1917 American Artist Ivan Narodny New York, 1930 Art Digest Summer, 1931 Art News May 6, 1933 The New York Times May 26, 1934 Herald Tribune, Paris October 22, 1938 Beaux Art, Paris October 28, 1938 La Vie, Paris November 15, 1938 L’Art Vivant, Paris February, 1939 L’Intransigeant, Paris May 6, 1939 Journal des Debats, Paris May 15, 1939 Art Digest April 1, 1941 New York American April 4, 1941 The New York Times November 9, 1960 Art Journal Spring, 1962 Art News March, 1962 Art News March, 1964 Art News March, 1967 Diaries of an Art Dealer, Rene Gimpel 1966 Tonalism : An American Experience Grand Central Art Galleries 1982 Arts Magazine, Ilene Susan Fort Tonalism: An American Experience 1982 Artists of Michigan from the Nineteenth Century Muskegon Museum of Art 1987 In Natures Way National Academy of Design, NYC Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago 1987 Americans and Paris Michael Marlais Colby College Museum of Art 1990 American Tonalism, Selections from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Montclair Art Museum 1999 Leon Dabo Retrospective D. Wigmore Fine Art 1999 l’Impressionnisme Americain 1880 -1915 Fondation de l’Hermitage, Lausanne, Switzerland 2002 The American Artist In Connecticut Florence Griswold Museum 2003 America The Beautiful Boca Raton Museum of Art 2003 Artists of The Litchfield Hills Mattatuck Museum 2003 After Whistler: The Artist and His Influence on American Painting High Museum Of Art 2003

Gallon, a British artist, was active in London. He was a painter of portraits and landscapes. He worked in watercolors and produced drawings. Gallon was very popular with the English public. He exhibited at The Royal Academy of London and at Suffolk Street after 1868.