Theodore was the second of eight children, he and his older brother Leon were apprenticed to an artist according to the 1880 U.S. Census. The artist was of course their father. Ignace was primarily a church decorator, and did much work through his association with the
Detroit Stained Glass Works, where he was employed until a year before his death, March 3, 1883. The brothers last appeared as Leon and Theodore Schott in the J. W. Weeks & Co., Detroit
City Directory of 1883. In the late 1880s, Theodore relocated with the rest of the family to New York City and soon began using the hyphenated surname of Scott-Dabo, perhaps as a tribute to their father's birthplace
Dabo, Moselle. Theodore and Leon joined together and utilizing the training they received from their father, formed L. D. & S. Dabo Decorator's. Leon, the motivating force of the two, developed a fairly successful business decorating Brooklyn churches and other institutions. Theodore, thought to be more of the family genius, was encouraged to pursue landscape painting. The art gallery owners would take no risk on an unknown person. With no outlet for exhibition, Theodore and his brothers, mounted private exhibitions of his work at the 14th St. studio. Finally, his work caught the attention of a few art critics who began to praise his paintings. The French artist
Edmond Aman-Jean had also taken noticed of his work and persuaded Theodore to return with him back to France. In Paris, Theodore opened his studio at 8 Rue de la Grande Chamiere near the
Luxembourg Garden. In the early weeks of October 1905, Theodore's paintings had their first public showing, beginning with the
Salon d'Automne in Paris, then in a landscape exhibition at the
National Arts Club in New York and in the Michigan Artist show at the
Detroit Museum of Art. Much of this happened through the efforts of his brother Leon, who arranged joint exhibits of their work in New York, Boston, Detroit and Los Angeles. During much of 1905, Leon corresponded with the Director of the Detroit Museum of Art and offered Theodore's painting "The River Seine" as a gift for the Museum's collection. The brothers' partnership was not to last as in early 1907, there was a highly publicized feud between Theodore and Leon, which was really more of a stunt arranged by the youngest brother, Louis Scott Dabo to aid the promotion of Theodore's work. The publicity failed and records show that in the subsequent years only a single one-man exhibition of Theodore's work was mounted at the Morrey Art Galleries in Washington, D.C. Two or three of his paintings were included in group exhibits here in the U.S. and in Europe, but eventually Theodore disappeared from the art scene altogether. In 1928, Theodore Scott Dabo died in the country of his birth at Billiancourt, a suburb of Paris. == Notes ==