Leon Shulman Gaspard (1882-1964)

Leon Gaspard was born in Vitebsk, Russia, a large town on the Dvina River west of Moscow. During his childhood, "he loved to ride with his father into the steppes of Siberia to buy furs and rugs from the brilliantly dressed Kirgiz, Kalmyk, and Kazakh [sic] tribesmen gathered on the snowy plain with their shaggy Mongolian ponies. Here he began to learn the Asiatic way of life that was to enrich his own life and art." (F. Waters, Leon Gaspard, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1981, p. 10)