An entire book would not be enough to list all of the admiration Gabriel Dauchot aroused. In a catalogue published in 1992, on the occasion of a retrospective dedicated to him, Jacques Chirac himself insisted on presenting him as “one of the greatest artist of Paris, in the tradition of Utrillo, Marquet or Dufy”. Especially Utrillo, to be precise: he shared with the master of Montmartre a certain taste for ironic and tender scenes, told by a sharp brush. Dauchot often painted clowns, Pierrot, Harlequin, musicians, melancholy and dreamy beings. Writer René Domergue nicknamed him the “merchant of magic”. He had a lot of prestigious admirers–Greta Garbo, pianist Arthur Rubinstein were amongst his collectors. Today, ten or so museums, in Europe and in the United States, exhibit his paintings.