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Lois Mailou Jones
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For more than fifty years, Lois Mailou Jones has enjoyed a consistently successful career as a painter, teacher, book illustrator, and textile designer. Lois Mailou Jones surmounted prejudices and roadblocks in her career yet prevailed on the basis of her talent, energy, and persistence. This world renowned artist has been a beacon of inspiration to many famous artists including Jacob Lawrence. Lois Mailou Jones was born and educated in Boston, Massachusetts. She graduated from the Boston Museum School and went on to settle in Washington DC and become a faculty member at Howard University in 1930. In 1937 Jones received a General Education Board Foreign Fellowship to study in France. She went to Paris in 1937 where she studied painting at the Academie Julian, lived among the French, learned to speak French fluently, and painted views of Paris and surrounding areas. In France Jones did not face the intense racial and gender prejudices that she faced in the United States, and as a result of the freedom she felt in Paris Jones developed a spiritual affinity for the French people and their nation and returned every year following World War II. In Haiti, Jones found a second spiritual home after she traveled there in the 1950s. Embraced by the Haitian government, Jones painted their landscapes and conducted painting classes at the Centre d'Art and the Foyer des Artes Plastiques. In recognition, the government of Haiti made her a chevalier of the National Order of Honor and Merit. Lois Mailou Jones has collections all over the world including the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC, the National Museum of Art in Washington DC, and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Her awards include the Lubin Award and the Washington Society of Artists Award. 
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