well. It was only in 1980 that he gave up his studio in New York altogether and settled permanently in Pawling, traveling but once a year to France to visit old friends. He had no family. He never had any children. Tabaud also excelled in painting children. Though he never had any of his own, he enjoyed painting them. After seeing one of Tabaud's exhibits in 1956, the art critic of the Los Angeles Examiner said: "He gives their faces marvelous expressions: as if they are, in a spiritual sense, on the threshold of adult experiences, as if some unknown force is pulling their thoughts into a world they would much rather back off from." In Pawling, Tabaud pleased friends and neighbors by drawing their portraits, free of charge. Whole days and evenings were spent reading the works of philosophers whose thoughts he had long wished to examine but had never had the time to do so before. Later in life Jean spent the last five years of his life battling Lyme disease. But this debilitating disease was not diagnosed until three years before his death, when treatment by antibiotics was of little use. In addition, Jean Tabaud was afflicted with cancer of the prostate, loss of hearing, and failing eyesight. He died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head on December 3, 1996. Two years after his death the Village of Pawling changed the name of the winding dirt road leading to his home from Gristmill Lane to Frenchman's Lane. References External links The Official Jean Tabaud Website Portraits of German Soldiers Portraits Inc, New York, NY 1914 births 1996 suicides 20th-century American painters American male painters American portrait painters French portrait painters Suicides by firearm in New York (state) Artists who committed suicide 1996 deaths French Army personnel of World War II French prisoners of war in World War II World War II prisoners of war held by Germany French escapees Escapees from German detention 20th-century American male artists