48 ADIRONDACK LIFE September + October 2019
“ARTISTS DON’T RETIRE,”
says Jean-Jacques Duval, sitting in his
Willsboro studio in front of an unfinished
abstract painting on an easel. Another
work in progress leans against a wall. On
his drafting table is a small line drawing
of Jesus and two angels, filled in with
watercolor paint—a proposed stained-
glass window design for a New Jersey
church, the latest of hundreds of projects
he’s conceived for buildings around the
world, from Japan to Germany to Platts-
burgh. In 2005, the Stained Glass Asso-
ciation of America honored him with a
Lifetime Achievement Award—though
his career was far from over.
Duval, at 89, lives independently. He
still drives himself to Montreal to bring
work to the gallery that represents him,Beaux-arts des Amériques, and he enjoys
cooking and socializing with friends and
neighbors. He is no longer steady enough
to wade into the Saranac River to cast for
trout—the preoccupation that brought
him north from New York City in 1992—
and he says his memory isn’t as sharp as
it used to be, but otherwise he is in good
health for a near-nonagenarian.
At times, his fingers twitch in mid-
air, as if thumbing through a mental fil-
ing cabinet stuffed with nine decades of
information in at least three languages.
There is plenty he does remember: He
was born in the Alsace region of France
in 1930. His Jewish father, who died when
Duval was six, never married his Catho-
lic mother—which would prove fortunate
during World War II. He recalls the Gesta-
po ransacking his family’s home, tossing
his elderly grandmother out of bed and
demanding the papers that would prove
his Jewish paternity. At the war’s end, he
says, his family hid out in nearby caves in
fear of S.S. troops, who were rumored to
be killing people as they retreated.
During the occupation, Duval’s fam-
ily kept up appearances by attending