Jean Delpech

Born in Vietnam in 1916, Jean Delpech was a unique artist. He studied at the Albert-Sarraut High School Hanoi (formerly Tonkin) where he was a classmate of North Vietnamese general Võ Nguyên Giáp and Phạm Văn Đồng.

After graduating, Delpech joined the School of Fine Arts in Hanoi, where he studied lacquering and painting.

The works conserved at the Musée de l’Armée, mostly drawings and prints, trace his career during the Second World War, from his military service in the 15th Alpine Hunters Battalion (BCA), in which he was mobilised in September 1939, to his stay in Germany in 1945, as a war correspondent with the 1st Army.

Delpech was influenced by the country of his childhood and his youth. In Paris, he enrolled at the School of Fine Arts. He won first prize of Rome in engraving intaglio in 1948: it follows a stay of four successful years in Italy. He subsequently taught drawing, painting and printmaking, among others in a workshop in Paris at the École Polytechnique.

Jean Delpech trained many young artists, many of which have since achieved fame (Philippe Mohlitz, Doaré, Houtin, Desmazières, Fernand Teyssier). He also produced postage stamps, illustrations for books and magazines, theater sets (for Dullin), medals, paintings and even stained glass.

From 1944 to 2004, his work was the subject of numerous exhibitions, individual or collective.