Galerie Paul Prouté

Born in Limoges into a middle-class, merchant family of means. After earning his high school diploma, Léon Jouhaud considered becoming a painter or an explorer before, at his father’s request, pursuing a degree in medicine. Enrolled in 1893 at the medical school in Limoges, then in Paris, he distinguished himself through his outstanding academic performance, ranking first in the residency exam. Alongside his studies, he was a frequent visitor to museums. After graduating, he opened a practice in Limoges in 1903 and was appointed professor of anatomy at the city’s Museum of Decorative Arts. In 1906, he abandoned medicine for good to devote himself to art, and more specifically to enamelwork, a discipline he had just discovered. Beginning in 1909, he presented his first enamel pieces and exhibited regularly at the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs, the Salon d’Automne, and the Salon des Indépendants.