Charles Despiau
Encyclopedia
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
sculptor.
Despiau was born at Mont-de-Marsan
Mont-de-Marsan
Mont-de-Marsan is a commune and capital of the Landes department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.Mont-de-Marsan airbase « Constantin Rozanoff » is a major installation of the French Air Force. The base includes CEAM , an air defense radar command reporting centre, and an air defence control...
, Landes and attended first the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs and later the Ecole des Beaux Arts. He began exhibiting at the Salon des Artistes Français, from 1898 to 1900; then at the less academic Société Nationale des Beaux Arts
Société Nationale des Beaux Arts
Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts was the term under which two groups of French artists united, the first for some exhibitions in the early 1860s, the second since 1890 for annual exhibitions....
, where he showed from 1901 to 1921, and finally to the Salon des Tuileries
Salon des Tuileries
The Salon des Tuileries was an annual art exhibition for painting and sculpture, created June 14, 1923, co-founded by painter Albert Besnard, sculptor Antoine Bourdelle, architect Auguste Perret, and others....
, where he exhibited from 1923 to 1944.
Rodin
Auguste Rodin
François-Auguste-René Rodin , known as Auguste Rodin , was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past...
hired him as an assistant in 1907. Despiau worked with Rodin
Rodin
- People :* Auguste Rodin , French sculptor, for whom is named:** The Musée Rodin in Paris, France** The Rodin Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA** The Rodin Gallery in Seoul, South Korea** Rodin , a crater on the Moon...
, as well as doing his own sculpture, until 1914, when he was drafted for service in the camouflage
Camouflage
Camouflage is a method of concealment that allows an otherwise visible animal, military vehicle, or other object to remain unnoticed, by blending with its environment. Examples include a leopard's spotted coat, the battledress of a modern soldier and a leaf-mimic butterfly...
unit in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
Returning to sculpture after the war, his success was established with his one-man show at the Brummer Gallery in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in late 1927. Despiau was not a prolific sculptor, preferring to work for as long as it took to realize his vision. There are several surviving plaster statues which repeat a model with only slight variations.
His works, mostly portraits and nudes exemplifying a calm classicism
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...
, are in the collections of over thirty museums in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and over 100 museums around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
. The Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
in New York owns the bronze Assia, perhaps his best-known work.
The largest collection is in his native Mont-de-Marsan, in a museum he shares with Robert Wlérick, established in the Donjon Lacataye
Donjon Lacataye
The Donjon Lacataye is a the keep of a 14th century castle, constructed by order of Gaston Phébus in the commune of Mont-de-Marsan in the Landes département of France...
. Despiau produced a total of 150 sculptures and 1,000 drawings over a fifty year career.
External links
- Despiau at www.ilovefiguresculpture.com
Web gallery of 20th Century figure sculpture