Let us tell you how our unique Las Vegas gallery came to be…

The Savidan Gallery is dedicated to Jeanne Savidan L’Hostis and her love of all kinds of art. Jeanne Savidan L’Hostis shared that love of art with her daughter, Suzanne who passed her passion for art on to her children.

Suzanne was born on November 2, 1929 in Brest France. Her father, Louis Pierre finished a 25-year career in the French Navy and posted to the French African campaign from 1914 to 1918. The L’Hostis family moved to Morlaix, France after her Father’s retirement from the Navy. Suzanne lived in Morlaix in her early years, and during the German occupation of France from 1939 to 1944. She finished her primary and secondary education in Morlaix and then attended secretarial school in Paris in 1947. After finishing secretarial school, Suzanne was employed by a glove factory as a secretary.

While in Paris, she began her poster collection because the small room she was living in needed to be decorated. Her solution was to ask Paris merchants for posters after exhibitions were over. Early on, the posters were given free of charge. Later, she had to pay the merchant the small price of the tax stamp required by the French Government.

In February 1953, Suzanne had a chance to accompany an American Army Colonel and his family to Arlington, VA. In August 1953, Suzanne was hired as a secretary for the French Embassy in Washington DC. She met her husband, a U.S. Marine Corps Officer in December 1954. They were married in Los Angeles, CA, October 22, 1955. Suzanne became a Naturalized American Citizen in November 1958 when living in Oneonta, NY.

The birth of four sons was to follow in 1956, 1957, 1960 and 1968. From the time of her marriage, Suzanne has lived in San Clemente, CA; San Diego, CA; Oneonta, NY; Paris, France; Vicenza, Italy; Nurnberg, Germany; Madrid, Spain and from 1989 to the present, Charlotte, NC. At each location, Suzanne was on the look-out for art posters to add to the small collection that she started in Paris 70 years ago, to decorate the small room she was living in.

Her collection now numbers somewhere between 600 and 700 posters that include many artists from many different nations and cultures.