Charles Despiau

Charles Despiau (November 4th 1874 - October 30th 1946), sculptor originating in Mount-with-Marsan.

Biography

Charles Despiau settles in Paris at the 17 years age, between at the School of decorative Arts then to the Ecole of the Art schools in the workshop of the Barrias sculptor. In 1904 he marries Marie Rudel.

The portrait with the preference of Despiau - what will not prevent it from creating remarkable statues later - and it exposes each year to the Living room of the National company of the Art schools. By their plastic power and seizing psychological truth to them, its portraits are remarkable, but fruits of a very long work, impassioned. In 1907, filled with enthusiasm by the plaster bust of Paulette (one lends the note: to him: " that, it is for the fine mouths! "), Rodin requires of him to work with him. It is the beginning of its period of expert who lasts until 1914, year of his mobilization for the " Large Guerre". It will be constrained to then give up the size in the marble which Rodin of the " had entrusted to him; Genius of the Éternel" Rest; , intended for the memorial to the painter Puvis de Chavannes. The plaster, which measures two meters, had required the hiring of a second workshop, Villa Corot, where Despiau was already installed with his wife, Marie. Demobilized after the war and Rodin having died in 1917, he will refuse to finish the size in the marble of the " Génie". The unfinished marble is currently exposed in the gallery of the gardens of the Rodin museum in Paris. The Master was not there any more to supervise his work. Engaged with the service of the " camouflage" during the war, this silent attended many painters and sculptors who imagined the decorations suitable to mislead the enemy. He will attend thus, of return to Paris, which one day a specialized journalist in Art will name with great success the “Band with Schnegg”, a group of sculptors. Plaster of the " Génie" , given to Despiau by Auguste Rodin, will remain with the Corot Villa, then will be moved (1930) street Brillat-Savarin, when Charles Despiau, who is finally success thanks to his first exposure-sale in New York, makes build his workshop and his residence. Heirs, finally, of this plaster, Mr. and Mrs. Alain Kotlar, after having made it clean and restore, make gift of this " original" with the museum of the plasters of Meudon, in 2001. Pig iron and cast iron original out of bronze of the " Génie" are currently on sale with the workshop Charles Despiau (cf charles-despiau.com official site - section " sculptures" , last page).

The marble bust of Paulette will be shown with the Living room of 1910 then bought by the State for the Musée of Luxembourg. Today one can admire this face enthusiast of interior life to the Musée of Mount-of-Marsan where it was deposited by the State. Modelled according to the face of the Mons young person Paule Pallus called Paulette, it releases a timeless serenity which does of them one of the most beautiful portraits of the collection. In this vein are located the Little girl of the Moors of 1904, Cra-Cra (girl of the decorator Georges Mouveau), of 1917 and the portrait of Alice Derain of 1922, the bust of Andree Basler, (known as Dédé), girl of the galerist Adolphe Basler and Andrée Wernert, known as Nénette, girl of the art critic Georges Wernert, in 1923. One feels in these works of a great originality the influence that Despiau like Schnegg besides, this ignored, Maillol, Bourdelle, Joseph Bernard printed with the modern sculpture which reacts against the lyricism of Rodin and the academism of the official spheres. An influence which, do not doubt it, will mark the contemporary sculpture outwards by releasing the artists of this official academism of which… " not salut" , nor of orders, particularly of the State, large provider, not to say almost exclusive!

Some orders, unquestionable important, such Circé (1912), the monument with Aristobulo del Valle for Buenos-Surfaces in Argentina (1914) are insufficiently remunerative. Set up by subscription, the War memorial of Mount-of-Marsan (1918-1920) is at the stone origin. It was put at the shelter with the museum in 1981 and replace with the Public garden of the War veterans of Mount-of-Marsan by a copy out of cement-stone. After a first allegorical project which envisaged the glorification of a Victoire, Despiau establishes a composition of a great balance. The monument is flanked, on both sides stele where the names of the victims are engraved, of two monumental statues women, the old mom and the wife, holding in its arms an orphan baby. They came to pay a last homage to the Mons missings during the first world war. The two women with the purified faces, poignant to feeling selected, testify to their suffering with much dignity. The mother joint the hands, curves the back, as exhausted long sorrow days before, and lowers a ravaged face. The young woman, that some do identify as being Jeanne Kamienska (?), sister-in-law of the painter Berthold Mahn, gently presses the head on the wall. The great originality of the composition comes from the absence of any anecdotic gesticulation or celestial invocation, very with the mode at the time, it with what the artist will refuse all his life.

In 1923, Despiau is member cofounder of the Living room of Tileries. In 1927, business success poind. " Réalisateur" is the original plaster of a statue ordered in 1929 by the widow of the Luxembourg industrialist, Emile Mayrisch, founder in 1911 of the powerful group of Arbed iron and steel industry. One can see the statue bronzes some which of it is resulting, in the park of the castle of Colpach (Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg). It dominates the tomb which the architect Auguste Perret had drawn. It portraiture not Emile Mayrisch itself which had a physique with the Armand Fallières, but, as usual at that time, rather reflects the creative force of the man who was Mayrisch. But it is the great particular exposure organized to New York with the Brummer Gallery, in 1927, on the initiative of the Parisian gallery Barbazanges, which brings glory and fortune to him and will make of him a sculptor finally very known, also in Europe.

As from 1932, the meeting with Assia, models professional that many artists of Dora Maar to Germaine Krull while passing by Soutine, regularly make pose, make it possible Despiau to sublimate the body of the woman. The left leg advances, slightly folded, the right leg, carrying, mark a very light assymetry of the hips. The head is turned towards the side, revealing the smoothness of one modelled delicate, the elbows are folded a little and the arms, symmetrical along the body, release from the very pure body lines, with the ideal proportions, where shades and lights emphasize one modelled at the same time long muscles strengthened by the dance and of a grace, of a smoothness ideal. The face, however finished, but voluntarily like " oublié" , like the hands and the feet, of which the proportions affirm the perfect beauty of the unit, thus accentuate the will to clarify the forms and that to strip the subject of any suggestion, particularly erotic. It is released some at the same time, the force, the beauty, serenity, simplicity, Assia, thus, becomes modern Venus of this Italian Rebirth, with which, already, with the beginning of the XX E century a journalist of art had compared the art of Despiau (" Donatello of the XX E siècle" , said Anatole de Monzie). Assia is with the row of most beautiful naked female of the history of the sculpture. She obeys the guns of the " very belle" young girl, answers the design that one has female ideal. In 1937, Despiau receives the ordering of a 6 meters height colossal statue, Apollon, intended for the square of the Musée of modern art of the Town of Paris for the great Exposure of 1937. This figure occupies as well Despiau, as it will never deliver it to the City, even less within the necessary times… it will work this subject until the end of its life (" with, or without drapery? " belonged to the questions, for example, that was posed Despiau in connection with this large naked), without definite decision. The " Apollon" will be molten in bronze on a purely posthumous basis. A meeting of some of his/her friends close artists such Segonzac, Paul Belmondo, his merchants and executors Mr. and Mrs. Jacquart, his wife, Marie, decided to dissolve the state of the " Apollo with drapé" , which is regarded as the final state, before enlarging. The museum of Mount-with-Marsan has a bronze pulling of this last state measuring 1,16 m height and the municipality ordered a posthumous enlarging of 2,20 m, exposed today in the open air, in a street of the downtown area. Apollo will have been one of his very rare government orders, it did not honor it…

Leader of the Independent Sculptors, sensitive modeller and large long-line bra, Despiau knows large a glory abroad, in particular with the the United States where the success of its personal exposure to New York in November 1927 is followed other important exposures and various homages of 1930 to 1948. Japan, if sensitive to the art of delicacy, reserves an enthusiastic reception to him and still a very great admiration keeps to him today. Europe will not be remains about it, of course, where it exposes and sells in all the capitals. It takes part in the International exhibition of Arts and Techniques of 1937 in Paris (it sits at the selection committee of works) and exposes, in a room which is devoted to him exclusively, 52 sculptures at the Petit Palais.

Despiau refuses to have pupils, having little taste for teaching. However, any artist coming to visit him, avid from councils, will always receive a reception benevolent, cordial, decorated relevant councils, according to his own talent and of his own sensitivity, not of those of the Master, particularly. Despiau, however silent and unobtrusive, is of an inexhaustible enthusiasm and an ardor when it is a question of speaking " métier". Thus one finds his artistic influence at Arnold, Wlérick, Leon-Ernest Drivier or Belmondo which admired it much. Many of other artists also, sculptors or painters, will name its " élèves" , honor which he had appreciated but undoubtedly refused, councils not having value of teaching. It is true that its predilection for the traditional shapes of the Greek statuary or that of the Rebirth, the harmonious use of the light (its workshop received the light of North), the plastic synthesis of its models, the calm one which characterize its work lead a seedbed of artists to find in him an intellectual guide.

Homage

It is necessary to await 1968 so that the museum of its birthplace, Mount-of-Marsan, celebrates its glory and that of his friend Robert Wlérick through the permanent exposure of the municipal collection for the museum Despiau-Wlérick. On this subject, it is advisable to pay homage to Mr Raymond Farbos, Montois and large admiror of Charles Despiau, founder of the " Association of the Friends of Charles Despiau" who, thanks to the gifts of Marie Despiau, could constitute a beautiful collection which will form then the beginning of the funds of the sculptures of the Mons museum. The centenary of the birth of Charles Despiau is commemorated in 1974 with the Rodin museum by an exposure which is exclusively devoted to him and which, then, will be presented in its birthplace, with the museum Despiau-Wlérick (1975). One owes this exposure to the action of Mrs Marcelle Kotlar, cousin German of Marie Despiau and Alain Kotlar, his son, science doctor, become the expert of the work of Charles Despiau (U.F.E. - French Union of the Experts) who contacted museums, collectors and contemporary artists of the large sculptor, so that this exposure can take place. Japan, in Tokyo and Osaka, always very sensitive to the rare smoothness which the work of Despiau releases, also honoured, frequently, the work of this uncontested Master. Japan will still organize in 1997-98 a round of retrospective exposures of its work for the fiftieth anniversary of its death.

Works of Despiau appear in many particular collections, in the whole world. Concerning the museums, one finds works of the Master, particularly with the National museum of modern art (leg of a very important number of sculptures and drawings, made by its wife, Marie, with its death, cf site of the Pompidou museum), with the museum of modern art of the town of Paris, with the museum of Mount-of-Marsan. Very many foreign museums - of which the museum of the Art schools of Algiers - also works of Charles Despiau have.

Sources

Contributions, in correction, of the information and complements brought by Mr Alain Kotlar, expert U.F.E. (French Union of the Experts) for the work of Charles Despiau, doctor science and Mrs Jeanne Fox-Kotlar, Director of communication, old part-time lecturer to the university (third cycle), Co-writer of the reasoned catalog of the work carved of Charles Despiau. These contributions are based on the files of the workshop Charles Despiau and those, are deprived, of its family.

External bond

Official site of Charles Despiau

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