Paul Jacoulet (c. 1896 - 1960)
Born in Paris in 1906, Paul Jacoulet showed a precocious artistic talent at a young age. As a youth his family moved to Japan where Paul began his studies as an artist at age eleven under Seiki Kuroda and Takeji Fujishima. Paul Jacoulet began by sketching places he visited on his travels through this new country he would soon fall in love with.
In 1920, Paul Jacoulet started work with the French embassy in Tokyo, but due to his frail health he was forced to resign the position. In 1929, Jacoulet made the first of many trips to the South Seas, where he then began to make woodblock prints of people in Asia, using the traditional Japanese woodblock print methods. By 1934, Paul Jacoulet arranged top woodblock carvers and printers such as Kazuo Yamagishi to assist him in producing his first woodblock prints while continuing to act as his own publisher. Thereafter, he was able to create less then two hundred different editions of woodblock prints. Not only did Paul Jacoulet use special hand-made watermarked paper made in Kyoto, but also lavish gold, silver, platinum, mother of pearl, mica, and sometimes powered semi-precious stones. The quality of material, along with his talent and subject matter made his prints unique. He also used as many as 300 different blocks for a single print. Paul Jacoulet is known as the “Frenchman of the woodblock print”. In 1941, Jacoulet chose the area of Karuizawa as his studio location and maintained this location until his death in 1960.
Paul Jacoulet’s works are in the collection of The British Museum, Vatican Museum, Pacific Asia Museum, Queen Elizabeth III, President Truman, General Douglas MacArthur, Pope Pius XII, Greta Garbo, and numerous other private collections. Paul Jacoulet spoke fluent Japanese, French, mastered the violin and the Japanese Shamisen, all while collecting over 300,000 butterflies in his lifetime. |
