John and I had purchased our first home in Hawaii, on Royal Circle in 2004. Shortly after we happened to be at an art fair in Honolulu when we came upon a lone woodblock print by Paul Jacoulet sitting on the floor of a vendors stall. It spoke to both of us from its color and composition, and by the time we were leaving the fair, we decided we had to have it. Turns out that a well known collector of art in Honolulu was also negotiating a deal on the same piece, at that very moment, so we had to act quickly. We told the sellers, a local Hawaiian family, that the piece would never leave the islands, that it would remain in the Pacific as long as we owned it and that clenched the deal for them. Today, it hangs in our home, its colors as radiant as they were when it was new, and is one of the most stunning pieces we own...it also matches our home in vintage and color!
Above is an image of the piece we own. A young boy from the East Carolinian island of Ponape and dates from 1930. The vibrancy of this piece is as bold today as it was 80 years ago when it was painted. We are lucky to have found it and as it is titled 'The call of the Sea', it called out to us!
Paul Jacoulet was a French born artist, (1902-1960) is little known in this day and age, but who was a remarkable portraitist during his time. He was the son of the French Ambassador to Japan, and was raised in Japan since childhood, and studied art as a young native born Japanese boy would have. His immersion into Japanese life as a young man, led him to live out World War II in a Japanese countryside as a farmer, rather than return to Europe or move elsewhere in the west. He was a childhood friend of Isamu Noguchi, the internationally acclaimed artist, having been taught english by Noguchi's mother. He did work for the US Government at the request of General Douglas MacArthur, but more intriguingly he became a part of MacArthur's own art collection, as well as a part of Greta Garbo's and Queen Elizabeth also has a large collection of his work. His work has been shown in leading museums around the world for decades.
This piece, from the Marianas islands shows a native islander in an amazingly detailed costume color national dress. Note the detail on the woven mat.
Jacoulet is also recognized as one of the few western artists to have mastered the art of woodblock printing sufficiently to be recognized as a sensei (master) in Japan. He mastered the traditional ukiyo-e style of woodblock printing as well as enhancing those techniques into his own style. His remarkable career spanned nearly 40 years, and his subject matter, the peoples of the asian world in traditional costume in everyday poses and circumstances. He traveled widely throughout the sparsely populated Pacific in the 20s. 30s, and 40s, often capturing local islanders and costume in vibrant colors as only a multi-process woodblock print can. Some of the Pacific Island nations have used Jacoulet's portraits to reconstruct the imagery of their native costumes from the period, as his is the only record of such.
Jacoulet, incidentally, was a very 'out' gay man, in a time when it was neither popular nor acceptable. He would frequently wear kimonos and kabuki makeup while at home or while entertaining dignitaries, collectors and friends. He was barred from entering the US in his lifetime due to his flamboyance. Times have changed, but one thing is clear, Jacoulet's genius of color and woodblock withstands the test of time!
