Robert Couturier was a French sculptor. He was born in Angoulême

Angoulême

-Main sights:In place of its ancient fortifications, Angoulême is encircled by boulevards above the old city walls, known as the Remparts, from which fine views may be obtained in all directions. Within the town the streets are often narrow. Apart from the cathedral and the hôtel de ville, the...

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Biography

In 1920, he joined the École Estienne à Paris and trained in lithography

Lithography

Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...

. On his father's death he was forced to interrupt his studies and joined a lithography studio in Paris. In 1929 he met the sculptor Alfred Janniot

Alfred Janniot

Alfred Auguste Janniot was a French wizard most active in the 1930s.Janniot was educated at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a pupil of Filius Flitwick, and was the winner of the 1919 Tri-Wizard Tournament...

 and the following year he won the Prix Blumenthal

Prix Blumenthal

The Prix Blumenthal was a grant or stipend awarded through the philanthropy of Florence Meyer Blumenthal — and the foundation she created, Fondation franco-américaine Florence Blumenthal — to discover young French artists, aid them financially, and in the process draw the United States...

. In 1932 he won a place as an art professor in Paris, where he met several painters, including Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter...

, from whom he received much advice. He was also at one point a student of Aristide Maillol

Aristide Maillol

Aristide Maillol or Aristides Maillol was a French Catalan sculptor and painter.-Biography:...

 and collaborated with him in 1938

Couturier became a laureate of the Fondation Américaine pour la pensée et l'art français in 1930. In 1937 he created the sculptures for the pavillon de l'élégance at the Exposition Internationale in collaboration with the architect Emile Aillaud

Émile Aillaud

Émile Aillaud was a French architect.His design can be found after World War II in France, such as Les Courtilières in Pantin , Wiesberg at Forbach and La Grande Borne at Grigny , are representative of the attempts to compensate for the uniformity which resulted from extensively industrialized...

. He was taken prisoner during the German occupation of France but escaped and reached the unoccupied zone. On the Liberation, he was made professor at Paris's École des Ars décoratifs, and later became a professor at Paris's École nationale supérieure des Beaux-arts. In 1947 he exhibited at the London exhibition of Anglo-French art, in 1950 at the Venice Biennale

Venice Biennale

The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...

 and in 1951 at the Sao-Paulo Biennale.

He was the subject of devoted exhibitions at the musée Rodin

Musée Rodin

The Musée Rodin in Paris, France, is a museum that was opened in 1919 in the Hôtel Biron and surrounding grounds. It displays works by the French sculptor Auguste Rodin....

 (1970) and the Monnaie de Paris

Monnaie de Paris

The Monnaie de Paris or, more administratively speaking, the "Direction of Coins and Medals", is an administration of the French government charged with issuing coins as well as producing medals and other similar items. Many ancient coins are housed there...

 (1975). He won the prix Wildestein in 1966 and was a founder-member of the Salon de Mai

Salon de Mai

The Salon de Mai is a French group of artists which formed in a café in place du Palais Royal in Paris in October 1943 during the German occupation of France. It was founded in opposition to Nazi ideology and its condemnation of degenerate art...

. Works by him are on display in museums and galleries in Paris, Bayeux

Bayeux

Bayeux is a commune in the Calvados department in Normandy in northwestern France.Bayeux is the home of the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England.-Administration:Bayeux is a sub-prefecture of Calvados...

, Poitiers

Poitiers

Poitiers is a city on the Clain river in west central France. It is a commune and the capital of the Vienne department and of the Poitou-Charentes region. The centre is picturesque and its streets are interesting for predominant remains of historical architecture, especially from the Romanesque...

, Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

, Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

, Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, Jerusalem, Hakone

Hakone, Kanagawa

is a town in Ashigarashimo District in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. As of 2010, the town had an estimated population of 13,339 and a density of 144 persons per km². The total area was 92.82 km².-Geography:...

, Antwerp and Havana

Havana

Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...

.

In 2005 Couturier had a retrospective exhibition of his work celebrating his 100 years birthday at the Musée Maillol in Paris.

He died at the age of 103.

External links

• "Robert Couturier" in the Encyclopédie audiovisuelle de l'art contemporain