Jules-Charles Le Bozec
Encyclopedia
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
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Biography
Le Bozec was born in Saint-MayeuxSaint-Mayeux
Saint-Mayeux is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Bretagne in northwestern France.-Demographics:Inhabitants of Saint-Mayeux are known in French as mayochins.-Sights:...
, Côtes-d'Armor
Côtes-d'Armor
Côtes-d'Armor is a department in the north of Brittany, in northwestern France.-History:Côtes-du-Nord was one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from part of the former province of Brittany. Its name was changed in 1990 to...
, Brittany. He was apprenticed to the carpenter
Carpenter
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
Alfred Ély-Monbet, of the nearby village of Caurel
Caurel, Côtes-d'Armor
Caurel is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Bretagne in northwestern France.-Population:Inhabitants of Caurel are called caurelois in french and kaoreliz in breton..-External links:*...
. He then moved on to study at the École des Beaux-Arts of Rennes
Rennes
Rennes is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France. Rennes is the capital of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department.-History:...
, before progressing to that of Paris. He was a pupil of the sculptor Jean Boucher
Jean Boucher (artist)
Jean Boucher was a French sculptor based in Brittany. He is best known for his public memorial sculptures which communicated his liberal politics and patriotic dedication to France and Brittany.-Early years:Boucher was born in Cesson-Sévigné near Rennes, Brittany...
, for whom he always retained a profound respect mingled with affection.
Le Bozec settled in Mellionnec
Mellionnec
Mellionnec is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Brittany in northwestern France.-Population:Inhabitants of Mellionnec are called mellionnecais.-External links:*...
. With Marcel Le Louët, Georges Robin
Georges Robin
Georges Robin , also known as Jorj Robin, was a sculptor and designer from Nantes.Robin was a member of the Breton nationalist art movement Seiz Breur, working at the magazine Kornog, founded by the movement's leader René-Yves Creston...
and others he joined the Breton art movement Seiz Breur
Seiz Breur
Seiz Breur was an artistic movement founded in 1923 in Brittany. Although it adopted the symbolic name seiz breur, meaning seven brothers in the Breton language, this did not refer to the number of members, but to the title of a folk-story...
, a group of young artists who were dedicated to the revival of decorative arts in Brittany. With James Bouillé
James Bouillé
James Bouillé was a French architect based in Brittany.-Biography:Bouillé was born in Guingamp He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, until he was mobilized after the outbreak of the First World War in 1914...
and Xavier de Langlais
Xavier de Langlais
Xavier de Langlais was a Breton painter, printmaker and writer. He usually signed his work with the name Langleiz, a Breton language version of his surname.-Early career:...
, he also helped to found An Droellen, the Breton studio of Christian Art.
In 1927, in collaboration with the painter René-Yves Creston
René-Yves Creston
René-Yves Creston , born René Pierre Joseph Creston, was a Breton artist, designer and ethnographer who founded the Breton nationalist art movement Seiz Breur...
, he designed the costumes for three plays: Ar C'hornandoned, by Yann Bayon and Jean-Marie Perrot
Jean-Marie Perrot
The abbé Jean-Marie Perrot, in Breton Yann Vari Perrot , was a French priest, Breton independentist and collaborator assassinated by the communist resistance. He was the founder of the Breton Catholic movement Bleun-Brug.- Early life :Perrot was raised in a provincial Breton-speaking family...
, Tog Jani by Yves Le Moal and Lina by Roparz Hemon
Roparz Hemon
Roparz Hemon , officially named Louis-Paul Némo, was a Breton author and scholar of Breton expression.He was the author of numerous dictionaries, grammars, poems and short stories...
, the first performance of which took place in January 1927.
Soon becoming well known, he received many commissions from churches and chapels in Brittany, including bas-reliefs for altars, as well as war memorials, which were built in large numbers at this period after World War I.
Some of Le Bozec's sculptures were reproduced by the ceramics company Faïencerie HB-Henriot
Quimper faience
Quimper faience is produced in a factory near Quimper, in Brittany, France. Since 1708, Quimper faience is painted by hand, and production continues to this day....
in Quimper, whose activities date back to 1690. Among these were "Woman Digging" (1930) which is a reduced version of the sculpture Earth, which had been exhibited at the Salon in 1927. Another was "Meditation", showing the bust from Le Bozec's original work, The Potato Harvester. This latter work was reissued in 2007 from the original moulds and is included in the new catalogue of the pottery in its collection of "Quimper White" ware. At an auction in the Drouot hotel in Paris, another of his works - Young Girl with an Umbrella - reproduced by the Faïencerie HB-Henriot reached the sum of 3100 euros.
In 1937, he made sculptures for the Chapel of Koat-Keo in Scrignac
Scrignac
Scrignac is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France.-Population:Inhabitants of Scrignac are called in French Scrignacois.-References:** -External links:*...
(Finistère
Finistère
Finistère is a département of France, in the extreme west of Brittany.-History:The name Finistère derives from the Latin Finis Terræ, meaning end of the earth, and may be compared with Land's End on the opposite side of the English Channel...
), built by his friend James Bouillé at the initiative of Abbot Perrot
Jean-Marie Perrot
The abbé Jean-Marie Perrot, in Breton Yann Vari Perrot , was a French priest, Breton independentist and collaborator assassinated by the communist resistance. He was the founder of the Breton Catholic movement Bleun-Brug.- Early life :Perrot was raised in a provincial Breton-speaking family...
, founder of the Breton Catholic youth organization Bleun-Brug
Bleun-Brug
Bleun-Brug is a Catholic association oriented towards Breton nationalism.-Origins:The group was created in 1905 by abbé Jean-Marie Perrot, with a name devised at the 1905 conference of the Union Régionaliste Bretonne at Kerjean Castle. The heather symbolizes Breton tenacity...
. The chapel is seen as a significant attempt to create a distinctive modern Breton architecture.
In 1946, he created the granite statue of Our Lady of Kerdro in Locmariaquer
Locmariaquer
Locmariaquer is a commune in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France.It lies south of Auray by road.-Coat of arms:This coat of arms was created 30 years ago by the local artist Jean-Baptiste Corlobé...
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2.70 metres high, the sculpture was left for sixteen years in the church before being moved to the edge of Kerpenhir to replace another statue that had been erected in 1883, but had been destroyed during World War II.
He died at Mellionnec
Mellionnec
Mellionnec is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Brittany in northwestern France.-Population:Inhabitants of Mellionnec are called mellionnecais.-External links:*...
, Côtes-d'Armor
Côtes-d'Armor
Côtes-d'Armor is a department in the north of Brittany, in northwestern France.-History:Côtes-du-Nord was one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from part of the former province of Brittany. Its name was changed in 1990 to...
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