Lucien Jonas

Lucien Jonas was a French artist commissioned by the government of France for patriotic paintings and posters during the war. His work was also published in America. He was born in Anzin, France where his family owned a distillary. Over the course of his life, Jonas returned to Anzin periodically to help work at the family business, and his time there provided inspiration for a number of his genre paintings. After returning to Paris in 1903, Jonas gained a number of accolades for his work. He received the second Grand Prix of Rome in 1905 and in 1907 the King of Siam aquired one of his works and displayed it at his palace in Bancock. At the start of World War I, Jonas was named the "Military Painter attached to the Army Museum" as well as the official painter of the French Navy. Jonas ultimately died in Paris in 1947.