Jean Carzou was born Karnik Zouloumian in Aleppo, Syria, to Armenian parents in 1907. He later created his surname from the first syllables of his two names and adopted a French first name. He was educated in Cairo, Egypt, moving to Paris in 1924 to study architecture at the École Spéciale d’Architecture, graduating in 1930. He was awarded France’s National Order of Merit and was elected to the Academie des Beaux-Arts in 1977. He was the first French painter whose work appeared on a French postal stamp and he was the member of the jury at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival.
