Helene de Beauvoir

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The artist at work.

Hélène de Beauvoir (* 6. June 1910 in Paris ; † 5. July 2001 in Goxwiller ) was a French painter of modernity and the younger sister of Simone de Beauvoir .

Life and accomplishments

The painter Hélène de Beauvoir was born in Paris, 103 Boulevard du Montparnasse, as the daughter of Françoise Brasseur and the lawyer Georges de Beauvoir.

De Beauvoir took her Abitur examination in philosophy in 1927, after which she attended evening classes in life drawing at the art schools Académie de la Grande Chaumière and Académie Colarossi . She began studying copperplate engraving and graphics at the Rue de Fleurs art school in 1928. In the same year she met the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre when her sister sent her on an appointment with him.

From 1934 to 1935 she worked as a secretary at the Bonjean Gallery . In 1935 she went on a study trip to Italy, where she visited Florence, Rome, Naples and Capri. De Beauvoir opened her first solo exhibition in January 1936 in the aforementioned gallery. Pablo Picasso also came to the opening and said: “I like your painting. She is very independent. ”In the same year, Hélène worked for her sister and Sartre, typing out manuscripts of the two.

In 1940 she planned to go to Portugal for a month, but the German occupation of France in World War II eventually persuaded her to stay there until 1945. During this time she married her friend Lionel de Roulet , a pupil of Sartre , in 1942 . He later became a diplomat, and so the two moved several times, including in 1945 to Vienna , 1947 to Belgrade and 1950 to Milan , where he became director of the French cultural center. In 1963 they bought a former winery in Goxwiller in Alsace . She stayed there after her husband's death in 1990. Hélène had no children; her husband Lionel had a special type of tuberculosis in his youth , which made him sterile.

What was difficult for Hélène de Beauvoir was the fact that her sister sometimes disparaged her painting. Writes Simone in the story of Hélène's painting on the early style of painting her sister ". For years she practiced, for me at that time too conscientious to compose the perfect picture" What had fallen Picasso, namely that Hélène not uncritically the then prevailing Abstract painting took , the sister was not right. In 1948 Simone de Beauvoir criticized her sister's painting several times in letters to a friend. Hélène de Beauvoir had to take note of these letters after her sister's death.

But in the 1960s Simone de Beauvoir changed her previously skeptical attitude and expressed herself positively in several letters. So she wrote: “What wonderful pictures! Everyone admires them! You have made your coup! ”(Pictured in Beauvoir peintre .) Sartre, certainly not for a courtesy report, wrote enthusiastically in his lengthy text on the occasion of an exhibition Hélènes in Brest :“ Your work is able to convince and inspire! ”

Hélène had a variety of exhibitions in many galleries in Europe, e.g. B. Amsterdam , Copenhagen , Hamburg , Regensburg , Rome , Lisbon , Florence , Tokyo , Geneva , in Central and North America such as New York and Boston . Particularly noteworthy is her relationship with the gallery owner Ludwig Hammer, whom she met in 1970 on the ship from Yokohama to Russia . A lifelong friendship developed. “C'est au cours de ce voyage que je rencontrai Ludwig Hammer qui m'organisa différentes expositions à l'étranger. Un ami très cher. ”P. 248, Souvenirs, Hélène de Beauvoir. Today a considerable part of her more than 3000 colorful and expressive works is in the Galerie Hammer in Regensburg. The estate is kept in the Regensburg State Library .

social commitment

In the early 1970s, Hélène became active in the women's movement and helped found a house for abused women in Strasbourg .

Works (selection)

literature

  • Hélène de Beauvoir: souvenirs . Recuellis par Marcelle Routier. Séguier, Paris 1987, ISBN 2-906284-30-0
  • Claudine Monteil: The sisters Hélène and Simone Beauvoir , Nymphenburger, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-485-01086-3 .
  • Patricia Niedzwiecki: Beauvoir peintre . Côté-femmes editions, Paris 1991, ISBN 2-907883-36-4
  • Pedro Calheiros: O Belo Ver de Hélène de Beauvoir: Pinturas E Desenhos, Portugal, 1940-1945 , Portugal 1994, ISBN 972-8283-01-6
  • Les temps modern, No. 201, Jean Louis Ferrier: Sur la peinture de Helene de Beauvoir
  • Marie-Claire, Aout 1986, "Simone, ma soeur"
  • Karin Sagner (ed.), Hélène de Beauvoir: Souvenirs. I always did what I wanted. Elisabeth Sandmann Verlag, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-938045-89-3
  • Karin Sagner: The painter Hélene de Beauvoir. Talent runs in the family. Hirmer Verlag, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-7774-2169-8
  • Weltkunst: "Books: Simone's Little Sister" Art magazine of the time. June 2014
  • AD: Rediscovered. It came and stayed. Helene de Beauvoir. May 2014

Web links

Commons : Hélène de Beauvoir  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
This article can not be adequately illustrated due to copyright reasons . At the moment there are no or only individual suitable images available, which are sufficiently licensed for further use .
See also the FAQ on images and image rights .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://hammergalerie.de/
  2. ↑ https://www.staatliche-bibliothek-regensburg.de/sonderbestaende/weiter-sonderbestaende/persoenliche-nachlaesse-und-sammlungen/
personal data
SURNAME Beauvoir, Hélène de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French painter
DATE OF BIRTH June 6, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH July 5, 2001
Place of death Goxwiller