Marie-Antoinette Boullard-Devé

Marie Antoinette Boullard-Devé (1890, Paris — 1970, Tangier) was a French artist who extensively painted Indochina, Vietnamese and Cambodian scenes and views of Angkor, with a predilection for oil on paper medium.

After studying at Paris Ecole des Beaux-Arts and meeting her first husband Pierre Fournier des Corats, a sculptor in the Art Deco style in 1908 — they parted ways after the First World War, in 1919 -, she settled in Southeast Asia from 1921 with her second husband, senior French government official Maurice-Arsène Devé, thanks to a grant (the Prize of the Compagnie de la Navigation Mixte, a French maritime company). 

She actively contributed to the École des peintres-voyageurs de l’Indochine, and illustrated numerous publications in the 1920s, such as the glossy magazine Extreme-Asie, and published in 1926 a 20-lithograph portfolio, Vision de l’Indochine, (Plon, Paris), with texts by Marc Chadourne. In 1928 and 1929, she held solo exhibitions in Paris, Saigon, and Hanoi, and her husband was appointed governor of Hué. In 1930, she exhibited in Bangkok while Maurice Devé
premiered a musical composition in Saigon.

For the 1931 Exposition Coloniale in Paris, she was commissionned by the organizers to create a large frieze (150×390 cm) depicting all types of Indochina and French India, located on the central staircase of the replica of the Angkor Wat temple. For the occasion, she worked along with students from Hanoi School of Arts — in particular Le Phở, Nguyen Phan Chanh, Vu Cao Dam, Georges Khanh –, and a fragment of the fresco is kept at the Paris Musée du Quai Branly.

In 1932, she participated in the first Salon des Artistes Musicalistes at the Galerie Druet in Paris, and in 1933, she began collaborating with the charitable organization Ligue de la Bonté, of which she became president in 1935.
Later, she continued exhibiting her work in Paris, San Francisco, Tangier, and other cities. In 1946, she participated in the Salon d’Automne in Paris and held a solo exhibition at the Gumpel gallery in San Francisco. In the 1950s, she
held several exhibitions in Tangier and Paris.

Marie-Antoinette Boullard-Devé died in Tangier in 1970, leaving a significant mark on the art of her time, particularly in relation to Vietnamese culture. Her artwork is often auctioned by major auctioneers such as Sotheby’s Hong Kong, and by Balclis (Barcelona) in July 2024.

Photo: ​‘Elegante en Indochine’ [Stylish Woman in Indochina], possibly an autoportrait (crozonantiquities)