Jacques Villon was born Gaston Duchamp in 1875 in Normandy, France. He was one of six children and four of the children would receive acclaim as artists and sculptors in their lifetime.
It was under the direction of his grandfather, Emile Frederic Nicolle that Villon learned engraving and in the summer of 1894 he studied at L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Villon submitted his drawings to local newspapers that featured illustrations. In 1891 Villon, at the age of 16, executed an etching of his father Eugene Duchamp, “Portrait de Mon Pere.” This was his first engraving and for this his spiritual guide was Rembrandt. This was exhibited in 1953 at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Paris in 1959 and various other major museums throughout France and the United States. In the same year Villon also executed a “Portrait of the Painter-Engraver Emile Nicolle,” his grandfather. This work would be exhibited throughout Europe and the United States from 1953 at The Museum of Modern Art to 1975 at the Grand Palais in Paris.
Jacques Villon became quite famous and well received throughout America and Europe and from the 1940’s he was exclusively represented by the Galerie Louis Carre. Jacques Villon received honors at various international exhibitions, including first prize at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh in 1950.
Jacques Villon died on June 9, 1963 at the age of eighty-seven in Puteaux, France.
