Paul Chevre

Paul Chevre

Paul Romain Marie Léonce Chevré (born July 5, 1866 in Brussels , † February 20, 1914 ) was a French sculptor . He was among the passengers on the Titanic and survived the shipwreck in the spring of 1912.

Life

Chevré was born in Belgium to French parents. Early on he showed a talent for sculpture; his first exhibition took place in Paris in 1890 . In 1900, Chevré participated in the International Exhibition in Paris and won a bronze medal for sculpture.

Statue of Samuel de Champlain

Chevré created several images of personalities from the history of Canada . For 14 years he used to travel back and forth between France and Canada: six months a year he worked in his studio near Paris; he used to spend the other half of the year in Canada. In 1896 he created a monumental statue of Samuel de Champlain , which was inaugurated in 1898. It is located in Québec on the Dufferin Terrace , near the Château Frontenac . The statue of Honoré Mercier was made in 1909 and that of François-Xavier Garneau in 1911 .

Signatures of the three rescued French on a playing card

In April 1912, Chevré was on the way to Ottawa . He had created a bust of Sir Wilfrid Laurier , the former Prime Minister of Canada , and was due to arrive for its unveiling and the opening of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway's Château Laurier Hotel , in whose lobby the work of art was to be displayed. He had embarked in Cherbourg and lived in cabin A-9, which belonged to the first class.

On the night in which the ship collided with the iceberg, Paul Chevré played with Alfred Fernand Omont, Pierre Maréchal and Lucien P. Smith of Philadelphia in the "Cafe Parisien" Bridge . After feeling the shock, they went on deck. The three French were able to board the lifeboat No. 7, one of the first lifeboats to be launched, and after some time they were taken on board by the steamer Carpathia and thus survived the Titanic disaster. Your American teammate, Mr. Smith, was killed while still looking for his wife, who had already retired to the cabin when the ship hit the iceberg.

Chevré was one of the surviving Titanic passengers who were interviewed soon after arriving in New York on April 18, 1912, and whose statements were used in the first press reports of the Herald and other newspapers about the accident. According to these reports, he allegedly claimed, among other things, that Captain Smith shot himself shortly before the ship sank. It was also claimed that the bust for the hotel sank when the ship went down. However, this was either a reporter's misunderstanding or a newspaper duck. When Chevré arrived in Montreal on April 22, 1912 , he immediately turned to the French-language newspaper La Presse there and had a denial published. In its apology, The Herald cited the reporter's poor knowledge of French, who appeared to have misunderstood Chevré's remarks.

After the shipwreck, Chevré stayed in Québec for half a year. During this time, the statue of Marianne , located in Viger Square in Montreal, was created. After that he returned to France and never boarded a ship again. He died almost two years after the Titanic sank.

Web links

Commons : Paul Chevré  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} biography on www.encyclopedia-titanica.org
2. ↑ travel dates
3. ^ Report on the sinking of the Titanic on www.titanic-report.com
4. ↑ Report on the rescue on www.titanic-report.com
5. ^ Report in the New York Times of April 20, 1912
6. ^ A newspaper report from April 20, 1912