Aime-Jules Dalou

Aime-Jules Dalou , (Paris, 1838 - Paris, 1902), is a French sculptor.

Dalou is wire of workman, and it is thanks to its artistic gifts that it moves towards the sculpture. Noticed by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, it is allowed with the École of the Art schools of Paris where it attends Rodin. Remained a militant republican close to the working claims, there will often direct its work with the defense of its convictions what will prevent it from shining during the Second Empire. Then engaged in the Common of Paris, it due to exile itself with the fall of this one.

Dalou was finally recognized after the amnesty, it was made officer of the Légion of honor. It is buried with the Cimetière of Montparnasse.

Biography

The sculptor Aime-Jules DALOU, raises Carpeaux, friend of Rodin, is little known of the French public, even of those of Parisian which turn each day around the extraordinary bronze of the “Triumph of the Republic” that one sees in the center of the Place of the Nation. Often, a great talent goes hand in hand with an intransigent personality and is accompanied by a passion for its art incompatible with the laws of the market. One cannot include/understand Dalou, and the relative secrecy which surrounds its work, without putting in perspective the man in his time and his social environment.

Dalou was born in Paris, the December 31st 1838, in a family of craftsmen Gant iers. His/her Protestant parents will raise it in the Laïcité and the love of the République. The child knew enthusiasms popular and naive of the IIe République, the Social one, it followed crowd of 1848 which was going to listen to Lamartine exalter the Démocratie with the three colors of the France. It grows in the Utopie of the “Spring of the people” which meant at the same time the emancipation of the Citoyen and the assertion of the national Souveraineté by the Vote for all.

The Franco-German Guerre of 1870, which swept the Second Empire and its records, gave birth to popular rising from the Commune of Paris, a drama in the middle of the nation where the destiny of Dalou will rock.

A child endowed for arts

Aime-Jules Dalou had shown very young person gifts for modelling and the Dessin, which had been worth the attention of Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux to him, which inserted in an elementary school of visual art, the Small School. Then to fifteen years, Carpeaux presented it to the École of the Art schools of Paris where the boy bound friendship with Rodin. The young artist earned his living in the large building sites of the capital while being formed with the Architecture and the decoration of the buildings on the large Parisian avenues. He also worked for a workshop of Orfèvrerie.

During these obscure years of formation, Dalou married Irma Vuillier, a woman of strong character which will support it all its life. The couple will have only one child, Georgette, a girl born with a mental handicap which required, until its death during the First World War, the presence at its sides of a responsible adult. Therefore Dalou will bequeath its workshop to the Orphanage of Arts and therefore the researchers currently lay out of more than 300 works bought by the town of Paris with the orphanage in 1905.

When the war of 1870 bursts, old Dalou of about thirty years already started its career of sculptor. A Marble “Daphnis and Chloé” presented to the Salon was bought by the State, a “Embroidering-machine” will receive a third price. Failures repeated with the Prix of Rome show the intrigues of the institution to him and cause its mistrust towards the very powerful Conformisme.

The Commune of Paris

The Franco-German conflict upsets the order of the Second Empire and the defeat of Sedan causes the proclamation of the IIIe République. Dalou engages in the combat. It is found Officier with the 83e battalion of the federate ones. Gustave Courbet which one has just elected with the Federation of the Artists from the Commune of Paris, calls Dalou near him as curator with the Louvre.

The spring of 1871 with recovered freedom is announced with a festive air. The artists dream to open the Musée S with all, the places of culture, the Bibliothèque S, they make their “Cultural revolution”. However the Civil war settles, the Of Versailles ones turn over the guns against the people. May 21st, 1871 begins the bloody Semaine, one of the most sinister moments of our history and the least comprehensible for deep France. The Tuileries burn, the town hall is attacked. One shoots with the Father-Lachaise (Mur of Federate the).

The Commune of Paris had named Dalou, provisional administrator associated with Louvre with mission of protecting the collections from the Vandalisme. May 17th, it had settled with its small family in the museum.

The exile of Dalou

After the triumph of Of Versailles, during Dalou, July and its family leave Paris and will seek refuge with Montrouge at one their friends. They will be lodged in the sculptor Alexis André. And in November 1871 they will be able to flee repression and to take refuge in England.

May 1st, 1874, the council of war of the government Mac Mahon, which has just prohibited the busts of Marianne in the public places, condemns by contumacy Aime-Jules Dalou to the forced labors to perpetuity, as well as many intellectuals.

We believed useful to stress that Dalou had been born in a Protestant medium. One knows which key role played the small Protestant community in the laic rooting of the political power resulting from 1848. They will be present near Jules Grévy. With the beginning of the Third Republic, in 1870, the catholics as a whole, by obedience with Pie IX will keep away; it is partly this intellectual vacuum which explains the participation of the other families of thought near the laymen in these revolutionary moments.

Just and proud, Dalou will never accept the capacity resulting from repression. Its readings bring it closer to Proudhon and Blanqui more than of Thiers.

With London, the first years are miserable, but quickly Dalou finds an use of professor of modelling and its reputation of artist is confirmed. It receives important orders. Its London successes will be worth to him to be selected to appear in great international exhibitions. It receives ordering of a public fountain and a monument for the Château of Windsor.

It is only in May 1879, after being amnestied under president Jules Grévy, the first authentic republican president, that Dalou and its family return of exile.

A public artist

Aime-Jules Dalou settles in Paris and begins an extraordinary career of sculptor, fascinating for models the work world and the Paysannerie. He carried out some of the most beautiful public monuments of the 19th century. Its major pieces appear in the museums of the world and on the places of Paris, Bordeaux, Quiberon, Bourges, Auteuil, London, Vierzon. Its Lying S of Blanqui and Black is masterpieces, and the Jardin of Luxembourg shelters three groups among most successful. A score of years of keen labor.

Dalou died the April 15th 1902. It rests with the Cimetière of Montparnasse.

Some works…

  • Bust of Alfred Roll, about 1895, terra cotta, preparatory study with the monument with Jean-Charles Alphand, Paris, museum of the Petit Palais.

  • the Fame , 1886, bronzes, Bayonne, Musée Bonnat

  • Museum of Orsay, Paris

- Large Peasant , bronzes, 197 X 70 X 68 cm
- Nude woman reading in an armchair , 1878, bronze
- Reading light , about 1875, bronze
- Hard-working upright holding a spade , bronze
- Wet cooper with cords , 1838, bronze
- Rebatteur of forgery , 1838, bronze

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