Guy Pène Du Bois

Known for satirical genre, especially of high society, he was a prominent New York artist in the early 20th century, part of the group that broke with conventional approaches of the National Academy of Design. Often his work seemed to have a narrative that was mysterious but addressed issues of urbane sophistication.He was born in Brooklyn, New York, in a New Orleans French family whose roots there dated to 1738. His father, Henri Pene du Bois, was a noted critic, and his son grew up in a highly cultured atmosphere in literary circles.Dropping out of high school, in 1899, he became the youngest student in William Merritt Chase's school, later known as The New York School of Art. In addition to Chase, his teachers there were Frank DuMond, Kenneth Miller, and Robert Henri, whose teachings on social realism and following one's own artistic inclinations had great influence.In 1905, he went to Paris and attended briefly the Academie Colarossi, and did numerous paintings of cafe society, a subject that he used re-occuringly. In 1906, because of the death of his father, he returned to the United States and worked as a newspaper music and art critic for a number of prestigious publications. In 1924, when he was in his forties, he spent six years in France, which was a turning point in his painting career away from Henri influenced New York Realism to broader subject matter. Many of his paintings are satirical to the point that the figures are caricatures. He also did numerous murals. Source: Askart.com