The Mystery of Artist Paul Dubosclard

By John Brewer

Share Story on:

The Mystery of Artist Paul Dubosclard
All Photos c/o Topanga Historical Society “Paramour” Edith Feeney and Paul Dubosclard, circa 1970.
SAVE THE DATE and help solve this mystery! On May 18, at 7:30 p.m., I will give a Zoom presentation for the Topanga Historical Society (THS) about Paul Dubosclard, his publisher Margaret Sheehan, and my work to create a catalogue raisonné (a book documenting everything produced by an artist). The name came up when I was searching for my brother’s Christmas present last year. Assembling a collection of beautiful and interesting old postcards documenting our California childhood stomping grounds led to one serigraph card from the late 1940s that caught my eye, “The Cannon,” of Santa Monica. That one led to others and each card was new and interesting and beautiful. At that point I began to recognize a talented artist and a mystery. Who was he?
A little research suggested an interesting story and that story started to fill out like a Hollywood screenplay. Who was this French immigrant, this talented mechanical engineer who, shot and wounded in World War I, spent years in a German prisoner-of-war camp teaching art to prisoners? How did that man become the inventor of aircraft manufacturing equipment that helped fabricate all of the fighter wings produced by the U.S. during World War II? How does a man like that, a wealthy and married genius, father a child with his paramour, a woman less than half his age, retire with his lover and child to a bucolic artist’s life in Topanga, and then produce a popular line of handmade silk-screen postcards marketed to the tourist trade?

Into this Mid-Century-Modern mystery, mix in eight patents, a contentious divorce from his prior Russian wife who also happens to exchange letters with renowned scientist Linus Pauling, and one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world, and we have a compelling story. Then consider that in addition to postcards, he produced oil paintings, posters, sculptures, watercolors, drawings, marionettes, and masks... and... that he and his work are, for the most part undocumented and undiscovered, and this becomes a fabulous tale.


Please contact me if you have Paul Dubosclard artwork or can help me learn more, and join me via Zoom on May 18, 7:30 p.m., at topangahistoricalsociety.org.
“Winter in Fernwood,” circa 1950. 
“Clouds over Topanga,” circa 1950.

Share Story on:

TOPANGA BEFORE TODAY

spacer
< 
 >
Viewing 1 to 3 (of 6 items)

The Canyon Chronicle

Digital Paper
Thinking Out Loud
Latest News
All things connected
SOUL & COFFEE
Pandemic
MY CORNER OF THE CANYON
EVENTS
ELECTIONS
Books
Astrology
ARTS
Commentary
Columnists
ENVIRONMENT
Covid diary
CALENDAR
Featured
Schools
Fires
Science
Health
Travel
Letters
OBITUARIES
Topanga historical society
Thanks Giving
Passages
WORSHIP SERVICES
DOG DAYS
SPOTLIGHT
WOMEN TAKING CHARGE IN CHANGING TIMES
SHOUTING OUT LOUD
COMMUNITY
OUT & ABOUT
AKUMAL DIARY
Arts & Culture
Butterfly Day
ECO-LIVING
BE WATER WISE
FIRST PERSON
GOVERNMENT AT WORK
HOLY DAYS OF RENEWAL
Movies
LONG DISTANCE LISTENING PARTY
Photography
Music
Pop Culture
Poetry
RUDE INTERRUPTIONS
SCHOOLHOUSE SCOOP
TO LOVE AND BE LOVED
Theatre & Dance
TOPANGA BEFORE TODAY
TRENDING
TOPANGA DAYS
WHAT’S HAPPENING?