Paul Leroy Grigaut was born on August 24, 1905, in Paris, France. He studied at the Lycée Henri IV, the Ecole de Louvre, the University of Paris and the University of Chicago. He also studied at the Fogg Museum of Harvard in 1946 and 1947.
From 1927 to 1946, Mr. Grigaut was an instructor and professor of the humanities at the University of New Hampshire. He joined the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1946 as an assistant curator and became the Institute's chief curator in 1955. He also served as acting director for a time in the early 1960s.
Mr. Grigaut left the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1963 to become the associate director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond. This career move proved to be short-lived, however, as Grigaut grew increasingly unhappy--both with his surroundings and museum administration. He left Richmond in late 1965 and accepted positions as a professor of the history of art and associate director of the University of Michigan's art museum, positions he retained until his sudden death on Tuesday, March 4,1969.
At the time of his death, Mr. Grigaut was widely recognized as one of the world's leading authorities on American and European decorative art, and the correspondence of his colleagues after his death is an impressive index of the esteem in which he was held. One short telegram simply reads, "Grieve for a great scholar and friend."
From the guide to the Paul L. Grigaut Papers, 1929-1969, (Bentley Historical Library University of Michigan)
