Geneviève Gallois

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Geneviève Gallois (born September 22, 1888 in Montbéliard , † October 19, 1962 in Paris ) was a French Benedictine , painter, draftsman, stained glass painter and caricaturist .

life and work

Origin and youth

Marcelle Gallois grew up as the daughter of an anti-clerical father and a devout mother. As a civil servant in various prefectures , the father and his family moved several times. Marcelle lived in Montbéliard, from 1895 to 1898 in Nîmes , then in Orange (until 1902) and in Le Blanc , and finally from 1905 in Montpellier .

The cartoonist

Marcelle, niece of the then famous painter Jean-François Gigoux , entered the École régionale des beaux-arts (art academy) in Montpellier in 1907 , specifically in the studio of Alexandre Courtines (1857–1923), but her style there was too unacademic declined. Her father then sent her to Paris, where she temporarily belonged to Fernand Cormon's studio at the art academy , but then began an artistic life, in contact with the caricaturists of the time, namely Adolphe Willette . She exhibited her works in the Salon des humoristes der Société des dessinateurs humoristes (Association of humorous draftsmen), also in Belgium and Switzerland, and was soon compared to Honoré Daumier and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec .

Conversion and entry into the monastery

In 1914 she met the Benedictine Jean-Martial Besse (1861-1920), who had made a name for himself as spiritual advisor to Joris-Karl Huysmans , Paul Claudel and Georges Bernanos and who, after three years of spiritual guidance, allowed her to join Louise-Adélaïde de Bourbon-Condé founded the Benedictine convent of Saint-Louis-du-Temple (Rue Monsieur No. 20, priory until 1932 , then elevated to the status of an abbey ), which was famous in Paris for the beauty of its Gregorian choral singing. She entered as a postulant on September 21, 1917 and was dressed on March 20, 1918. She took the religious name Geneviève (after Genoveva of Paris ). Her father (died in May 1944), with whom she had had a close relationship until then and who recognized her as an important artist, never forgave her for the step of renouncing her artistic career in favor of a monastic life.

Difficult monastic life

The novitiate , which normally ended after three years, lasted in her case for 15 years. In 1921 she was only allowed to profess as an oblate . It was not until November 17, 1933, that the monastery finally allowed her to make temporary profession (for three years) after a second novitiate was imposed on her. In 1938 the convent had to leave Rue Monsieur and temporarily went to Meudon for 13 years (with an interruption from 1940–1941 as a result of the war), then in 1951 to the newly built monastery in Limon ( Vauhallan ). Geneviève's temporary profession also lasted an unusually long time, because it was not until 19 May 1939 that she became a full member of her convent through perpetual profession at the age of 51. In 1940 she fled from the German occupation to Monclar-de-Quercy and to the La Molle monastery of the Guardian Angel Sisters founded by the blessed Louis-Antoine Ormières (1809–1890) in Montauban , before she was able to return to Meudon in May 1941.

Rediscovery of the artist by Paul Alexandre

As a nun, Geneviève initially renounced his own artistic work and contented himself with a subordinate (albeit conflicting) role in the monastic manufacture of paraments , until 1931 the patron of the arts Paul Alexandre (1881–1968), well-known patron and friend of Amedeo Modigliani , on her Werk became aware of her, encouraged her (without the possibility of a personal encounter initially) to be artistically active again, and in 1939 managed to get the monastery management officially allowed to do artistic work. To do this, he made a hand press available to her. In 1942, at the first personal encounter, he encouraged her to draw the life of the monastery.

Career as a monastery artist

By 1949 Geneviève had created 157 gouaches , which from a German point of view place them between Heinrich Zille and Käthe Kollwitz . In 1950 the cycle Via Crucis was added. In 1952, Geneviève (always at Alexandre's suggestion) began with the church windows of Petit-Appeville in Hautot-sur-Mer near Dieppe (completed in 1955) and those of Limon (completed in 1962). In the same year Marie Laurencin became aware of them, and a friendship developed (including Laurencin's friend Rose Adler, 1890-1959). Laurencin promoted her notoriety in the Parisian art scene. In 1953 there was a first exhibition in Paris in the gallery of Colette Allendy (1895–1960). The 1954 comic book The Life of Little Saint Plazidus (translated into five languages, including German) was a complete success .

Illness, death and belated appreciation

In 1957 Geneviève's illness began. In 1962 she died 10 days after the last Limon window was installed. The comprehensive biography by Paul Alexandre's son Noël, published in 1999, and even more in 2012 the short biography based on it by Catherine Marès, led to the founding of the Friends of Geneviève Gallois (online) in 2016.

Works

  • Via Crucis , 1954, Jouques 1968.
  • La Vie du Petit Saint Placide . Desclée de Brouwer, Paris 1954, Jouques 2004 (preface by Marcelle Auclair, 1899–1983).
    • (German) The life of the little saint Plazidus . Lucerne 1955, Munich 1977.
    • Italian 1955, English 1956, Spanish 1996, Swedish 1997

Posthumously

  • Vitraux de l'église abbatiale de Limon, présentés et commentés par mère Geneviève Gallois . Lime.
  • Les Moniales . Desclée de Brouwer, Paris 1966.
  • Le Sacrifice de la Messe , trente dessins de mère Geneviève présentés by Camille Mayran. Textes du cardinal Journet, éd. du Cloître 1976.
  • Reality unique et éternelle . Editions du Cloître, Jouques 1980, 1986.
  • Abbaye Notre Dame de Fidelité. Citations de la règle de Saint Benoît . Editions du Cloître, Jouques 1989.
  • Mystique et artist. Ecrits spirituels . Edited by Jérôme Alexandre. Parole et Silence, Paris 2015.

Exhibitions (selection)

  • 1994: moment and eternity. Mère Geneviève Gallois: Drawings - Paintings - Etchings ; Exhibition of works by the French Benedictine nun (1888–1962); September 24 to October 12, 1994, Leinfelden-Echterdingen , City Library Leinfelden; October 23 to November 13, 1994, Schorndorf , community center of the Catholic Church Community of the Holy Spirit; November 19 to December 10, 1994, Stuttgart , Katholisches Bildungswerk Stuttgart. Ed .: Bildungswerk der Diocese Rottenburg-Stuttgart 1994.
  • 2008: Mère Geneviève Gallois, 1888–1962. Vision du cloître au XXe siècle , Magny-les-Hameaux, musée national de Port-Royal des Champs, Paris 2008.
  • 2018: Geneviève Gallois (1888–1962), peintre et moniale . In the Musée municipal du Hiéron - Paray-le-Monial .

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gallois, Geneviève
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gallois, Marcelle
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French Benedictine nun and artist
DATE OF BIRTH September 22, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Montbeliard
DATE OF DEATH October 19, 1962
Place of death Paris