(Birth name was Gaston Duchamp)
Oldest brother of the artists Marcel Duchamp, Suzanne Duchamp-Crotti and the sculptor Raymond Duchamp-Villon
Villon began studying as a law student but in 1894 went to Paris to study art. He changed his name to Villon (after the poet). He met Toulouse-Lautrec and many other influential artists working in Paris at the time. He exhibited at the Salon d'Automne in 1904 and painted and made prints of some of the finest belle-époque portraits and genre scenes of the early 20th century. Around 1911 he came under the influence of Picasso and other cubists and became a leading exponent of the style, exhibiting in the New York Armoury Show in 1913. In 1922, in straightened circumstances, he was commissioned by the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune to produce a series of colour aquatints after 38 major 19th and 20th century paintings by artists including the Douanier Rousseau, Renoir, Matisse, Picaso, Cezanne, Braque, Dufy, Modigliani, Manet, Bonnard and many others, and those artists who were still alive collaborated and signed the prints which were meant to provide the public with access to works which were not otherwise available (colour photography was not an option for reproducing art in those days). The project took 10 years to fulfill. Many of these prints are highly prized today and some went on to be widely reproduced by the Louvre Museum as photo-etchings. His 'cubist' style etchings, with their characteristic cross-hatching (later to be emulated by David Hockney and others) are amongst the most important prints of the 20th century.
Villon's long career brought him fame and he was a major figure in 20th century art. The diverse nature of his paintings, from fin-de-siècle portraits to cubist and abstract styles and of his graphic work - from belle époque evocations of the 'beau monde' to his distinctive hatchwork in his cubist etchings - is truly amazing. He was made a Grand Officier de la Légion d'Honneur, its highest honour and when he died at the age of 88 he was given a state funeral.