The painter Jean Masson arrived in Tahiti in 1938 with a travel grant from the Salon de la Nationale. He stayed there for 4 years. He spent from 1942 to 1946 in America and then returned to Tahiti where he lived from 1948, making from time to time long working stays in the Tuamotu. During his stay in the United States, he exhibited in San Francisco (1943), Los Angeles (1944), Hollywood and New York. In Tahiti, he exhibited several times (Tropics, Polynesian Circle, Stuart Hotel), also in Noumea in 1955. Landscape painter, we also owe him portraits and monotypes. Masson was one of the first in Tahiti to be interested in hand-decorated fabrics using dies or prints engraved on linoleum.