Lucien Labaudt
{{Short description|French-American painter}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Lucien Labaudt
| image = Lucien Labaudt.jpg
| caption = Life artist-correspondent Lucien Lambaudt (December 1943)
| birth_name = Lucien Adolphe Labaudt{{cite web|url=https://www.getty.edu/vow/ULANFullDisplay?find=&role=&nation=&subjectid=500000057 |title=Labaudt, Lucien Adolphe|website=Getty Museum|access-date=4 May 2021}}
| birth_date = {{birth date|1880|05|14|mf=yes}}{{cite web|url=https://store.sternfinearts.com/lula1.html |title=Lucien Labaudt (1880-1943)|website=George Stern Fine Arts|access-date=4 May 2021}}
| birth_place = Paris, France
| death_date = {{death date and age|1943|12|12|1880|05|14|mf=yes}}
| death_place = Assam, India
| resting_place =
| education =
| occupation = Painter, educator, muralist, artist-news correspondent
| spouse =
| children =
| parents =
| relatives =
}}
File:Beach Chalet murals (3905185643).jpg in Golden Gate Park, created for the Federal Art Project (1936–1937)]]
Lucien Adolphe Labaudt (May 14, 1880 – December 12, 1943) was a French-born American painter based in San Francisco, California.{{cite news |title=Artist Lucien Labaudt Loses Life In Plane Crash Near Burma Border |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/683827800/?terms=%22Lucien%20Labaudt%22&match=1 |access-date=May 4, 2021 |work=Los Angeles Evening Citizen News |date=December 15, 1943|page=1|via=Newspapers.com}} His best-known work may be Powell Street (1934), a mural in fresco at Coit Tower that he created for the Public Works of Art Project.
Biography
Labaudt was born in Paris on May 14, 1880. In 1906, he emigrated to the United States and first settled in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1910, he moved to San Francisco in a studio. In 1919, Labaudt started teaching at the California School of Fine Arts. One of his students was painter Nell Sinton.{{Cite book |last1=Heller |first1=Jules |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ReZkAgAAQBAJ |title=North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary |last2=Heller |first2=Nancy G. |date=2013-12-19 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-63889-4 |pages=1692–1693 |language=en}}
He painted two murals in the lobby of the Spring Street Courthouse in Los Angeles: Life on the Old Spanish and American Ranchos in 1938 and Aerodynamism in 1941.{{cite web |title=U.S. Courthouse, Western Division: Labaudt Murals – Los Angeles CA |url=https://livingnewdeal.org/projects/u-s-courthouse-western-division-aerodynamism-mural-los-angeles-ca/ |website=The Living New Deal |publisher=Department of Geography, University of California, Berkeley |access-date=May 4, 2021}}
Labaudt was one of a select number of civilian artists invited to join the United States Army Art Program in World War II. He was appointed to the program in April 1943, and assigned to the China Burma India Theater. When the Army's War Art Unit was abruptly eliminated by Congress, he joined the war art program of Life magazine. He left Los Angeles for India in September 1943, traveling for two months aboard a Liberty ship carrying a cargo of dynamite.{{cite news|date=October 15, 1944 |title=Lucien Labaudt Exhibition |url= |work=Oakland Tribune |page=22 }} He was killed in a plane crash in Assam on December 12, 1943, en route to China, where he had been assigned to capture scenes of guerrilla warfare. Labaudt was the first war correspondent killed in that theatre{{cite news |date=December 16, 1943 |title=U.S. Artist is Killed in India Plane Crash |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1943/12/16/archives/us-artist-is-killed-in-india-plane-crash-labaudt-was-on-way-to.html |work=The New York Times |access-date=November 2, 2022}} and the only Life artist-correspondent to die in the war. None of his sketches or personal effects survived.{{cite magazine |last=Sheets |first=Millard |author-link=Millard Sheets |date=January 3, 1944 |title=Letters to the Editor |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vVQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA2 |magazine=Life |page=2 |access-date=November 1, 2022}}{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/theydrewfire/resources/artists.html |title=Why Send Artists into Combat? |last= |first= |date= |website=They Drew Fire: Combat Artists of World War II |publisher=PBS |access-date=November 1, 2022}}{{cite web|url=https://www.historynet.com/nine-artists-who-lost-their-lives-on-the-battlefield.htm |title=Nine Artists Who Lost Their Lives on the Battlefield|website=History Net|date=24 March 2020|access-date=4 May 2021}}
Legacy
A Liberty ship named the SS Lucien Labaudt was christened at Richmond Shipyards on April 7, 1944.
In 1946, Labaudt's widow Marcelle opened the Lucien Labaudt Art Gallery at 1407 Gough Street in San Francisco.{{cite web |title=Lucien and Marcelle Labaudt papers, 1896–1987 |url=https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/lucien-and-marcelle-labaudt-papers-7257 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian |access-date=May 4, 2021}}{{cite magazine |last=Fuller |first=Mary |date=August 1962 |title=Lucien Labaudt: In Memorium |url=https://www.artforum.com/print/196208/lucien-labaudt-in-memoriam-73073 |magazine=Artforum |pages=24–25 |access-date=November 1, 2022}} His work can be seen at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.{{cite web |title=Lucien Labaudt |url=https://www.sfmoma.org/artist/lucien_labaudt/ |website=SFMOMA |access-date=May 4, 2021}}
References
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External links
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- [https://livingnewdeal.org/artists/lucien-labaudt/ Lucien Labaudt] at The Living New Deal
- Lucien Labaudt | http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/cara/ucb/text/Cara_Volume_19.pdf
- Lucien Labaudt L'Atelier, oil on canvas ,1931, in the OMCA collections | http://collections.museumca.org/?q=collection-item/a8221
- Lucien Labaudt Couch, mahogany furniture, 1930, in the OMCA collections | http://collections.museumca.org/?q=collection-item/a8721
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Category:American male painters
Category:Painters from San Francisco
Category:French emigrants to the United States
Category:19th-century American painters
Category:19th-century French painters
Category:20th-century American painters
Category:20th-century French painters
Category:19th-century French male artists
Category:19th-century American male artists
Category:20th-century American male artists
Category:Public Works of Art Project artists
Category:Federal Art Project artists