Charles Despiau

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Charles Despiau (1874-1946)
Charles Despiau

Charles Despiau (born November 4, 1874 in Mont-de-Marsan , † October 28, 1946 in Paris ) was a French sculptor who was valued above all as a portrait sculptor and, alongside Auguste Rodin , Aristide Maillol and Antoine Bourdelle, was one of the leading sculptors of the early 20th century.

First beginnings

Charles spent his childhood with his older brother Louis in Mont-de-Marsan . Both father and grandfather were plasterers . Despiau's artistic talent was discovered and promoted early on by his father and his art teacher Ismaël Morin. At the age of 17 Despiau moved to Paris and began working as an artisan at the École National des Art Décoratifs in 1892 . In 1895 he succeeded in the second attempt to pass the entrance exam for the École des Beaux-Arts and he became a student of Louis-Ernest Barrias . From then on he exhibited his work in the Salon des Artistes Français . In 1900 he began to work as an assistant for Jean-Alfred Halou and thus got into the wider circle around Auguste Rodin . In 1901 Despiau withdrew from the art academy and switched to the Société nationale des beaux-arts . Rodin first became aware of Despiau that year when he exhibited his large stone figure La Convalescente . But it was not until 1907 that the bust Paulette made Rodin hire Despiau as an assistant. A trusting relationship developed. Despiaus' art underwent further development through and in dealing with the so-called " Bande à Schnegg ", an artist group around Lucien Schnegg. In 1909 Despiau completed the Jeune fille des Landes , which already shows the characteristics of the calm design of Schnegg. In 1904 he married Marie Rudel, who was a diligent model for him. The marriage remained childless. Despiau's art was initially limited to portraits of people from his immediate environment. During the First World War Despiau worked in a camouflage unit, during which he was less able to develop artistically. But there were two portraits of children, for which he used neighbors' children as models and he got to know many painters, with whom he became friends. Among them were, for example, Georges Mouveau and André Dunoyer de Segonzac , some of whom he later portrayed.

The 1920s and 1930s

Plaster model 1942, Apollon. By Charles Despiau (1874–1946)
Plaster model 1942, Apollon

After the death of Auguste Rodin in 1917 and the associated loss of employment in his master's studio, Despiau's financial situation became difficult. But after he was able to exhibit again with the support of Dunoyer de Segonzac, André Derain and other friends and the state had bought a bronze figure of the Cra-Cra from him, things slowly started to improve again. He continued to practice portraits and also made his first attempts with large figures, such as B. the Athlète au repos . In 1923 he founded the Salon des Tuileries together with Aristide Maillol , Antoine Boudelle , Léon-Ernest Drivier and Robert Wlérick . Despiau celebrated the breakthrough in his career not in France, but abroad, especially in the USA. In 1925 he achieved greater fame in his home country through the exhibition of his Faunesse at the large Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et industriels modern . In the Salon des Tuileries he exhibited his Eva , which was highly praised by the members, especially the younger artists. In 1927 he got a professorship at the Académie Scandinave . In the same year he had his first solo exhibition at the Brummer Gallery in New York, where 22 of his works were exhibited, including Maria Lani . It was a huge success and Vanity Fair wrote that since Auguste Rodin there has not been a foreign sculptor who has made such an impression in the USA. Numerous exhibitions abroad followed, including in Buffalo, Brussels, Chicago, Prague, Zurich, Basel, Bern and also in Germany. Despiau could hardly save himself from commissioned work and was so well off financially that he also refused orders. In 1931 he met Odette Dupeyron in the Landes , who from then on always sat as a model for him. Despiau created some drawings, as well as a bust, a seated and a standing figure of her. In 1932 he met Assia Granatouroff , who modeled one of his most famous works, Assia . In 1936 he was appointed to the committee that was responsible for the outdoor planning of the Paris World Exhibition in 1937 . Some of his works could also be seen there, including the "Assia", which was highly praised. This was followed by the order to create a larger-than-life statue for the esplanade of the Palais de Tokyo and Despiau began working on the "Apollon" design intended for there. However, it never got past a model about three feet tall. Despiau was friends with August Suter .

Late 1930s to 1940s

Arno Breker had already come to Paris in 1927 and, like many art students, had visited Despiau in his studio. Despiau was busy with the “Apollon” at the beginning of the Second World War , but work on this major project was suddenly stopped when his model was deported. In 1941 Breker offered him a trip to Germany and promised to campaign for the release of 100 prisoners, including Despiau's model. Despiau agreed and went on a week-long trip to Berlin, visiting galleries, museums and the New Reich Chancellery . Artist colleagues such as André Dunoyer de Segonzac , Paul Landowski , Henri Bouchard, Paul Belmondo, and painters such as Kees van Dongen , Maurice de Vlaminck , André Derain and Othon Friesz also took part in the trip. The trip, which was obviously for propaganda purposes, shaped Despiau's reputation as a collaborator. In addition, his name vouched for an exhibition catalog for a Breker exhibition in Paris in 1942, without ever having written the text himself. After the end of the war, Despiau was exonerated before the purge commission through consistently positive testimony. But he was slapped in the street and received death threats when he returned home. He became more and more nervous, lived withdrawn, ate little and neglected himself. He died on October 28, 1946, probably of pulmonary congestion, and was buried in close family circles in Mont-de-Marsan . The unclear political motivation of Charles Despiau in the Third Reich has so far largely barred a scholarly examination of Despiau's work, which has an important role in the development of European sculpture. An exhibition in the Gerhard-Marcks-Haus Bremen will show a comprehensive retrospective of his sculptural work for the first time until June 2014.

Works

Statue Assia in Rotterdam , created in 1937 by Charles Despiau.

Exhibitions

literature

  • Léon Deshairs: C. Despiau , Paris 1930.
  • Maximilien Gauthier: Charles Despiau , Paris 1942.
  • Museum Beelden aan Zee / Gerhard-Marcks-Haus: Charles Despiau. Sculpteur mal-aimé , catalog for the exhibition of the same name, Waanders Uitgevers, ÈposPress, Zwolle 2013.
  • State Graphic Collection Munich: Charles Despiau. Drawings , catalog and exhibition by Michael Semff , Sellier Druck GmbH, Freising 1998.
  • Joe F. Bodenstein: Arno Breker - une biography. Èditions SÉGUIER Paris, French first edition 2016, ISBN 978-2-84049-690-8 . European Art Museum

Web links

Commons : Charles Despiau  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Elisabeth Lebon: Charles Despiau - biography , In Museum Beelden aan Zee / Gerhard-Marcks-Haus: Charles Despiau. Sculpteur mal-aimé, Waanders Uitgevers, ÈposPress, Zwolle 2013, p. 58.
  2. ^ Elisabeth Lebon: Charles Despiau - biography, In Museum Beelden aan Zee / Gerhard-Marcks-Haus: Charles Despiau. Sculpteur mal-aimé, Waanders Uitgevers, ÈposPress, Zwolle 2013, p. 69.
  3. ^ Elisabeth Lebon 1997/98 catalog Japan, In Staatliche Graphische Sammlung Munich (1998): Charles Despiau. Drawings. Catalog and exhibition by Michael Semff.
personal data
SURNAME Despiau, Charles
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH November 4, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Mont-de-Marsan
DATE OF DEATH October 28, 1946
Place of death Paris