Museum
In the Montparnasse district, the Bourdelle Museum offers a rare example of these workshops artist flourished in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Bourdelle settled there in 1885. Born in Montauban, he sought to continue his education and his career as a sculptor Paris. He remained there until his death in 1929. This is where for over 40 years he produced most of his work.
Like Rodin, with whom he was practicing, he thought of his "museum". In the early 30s, Gabriel Cognacq advance the money needed to buy the land without ever asking to be reimbursed to avoid dispersion of Bourdelle's works and a few years later, in 1949 the museum opened. While preserving the authenticity of the places, shops and apartments are still intact, the first expansion in 1961 are made by Henry Gautruche and in 1992 by Christian de Portzamparc.
The museum features more than five hundred plaster, marble and bronze in the shops and gardens where the sculptor lived and worked. Bourdelle was a practitioner of Rodin, the master of Giacometti and Germaine Richier; he allowed Matisse in his workshops at the turn of the century.
The familiar surroundings of the apartment has been faithfully preserved. In the sculpture studio where the artist has shaped his masterpiece, the archer Herakles, the high windows illuminated by light from the north, furniture, casts of ancient sculpture and the great dying Centauri keep the memory of places. Silence invaded the garden of ivy is conducive to meditative fervor emanating bronze statues like that of Sappho.
The Great Hall (1961) built for the centenary of the birth of Bourdelle offers a complete panorama of the monumental work: plastering the Monument to General Alvear, La Madonna Offering of France, the great frieze of the Opera de Marseille and reliefs of the Theatre des Champs-Elysees. This involves organizing a set of plans bare white walls capable of reflecting light, and walls Gray, capable of absorbing and retaining the shadows so to highlight the work of Bourdelle.
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52-minute video begins with a visit to the actress Catherine Frot Bourdelle Museum.
Biography of Antoine Bourdelle
Born in Montauban Antoine Bourdelle left school early. From age 13, he prefers to help his father in his woodworking shop. In parallel, he studied drawing, and soon noticed, gets a scholarship to the Beaux-Arts in Toulouse. Three years later, he went to Paris and became associate Falguière. In 1885, he is already a prize at the Salon of French artists for its "first victory of Hannibal." After several difficult years - health problems, separation Falguière with the death of his mother - he finds the urge to create, especially under the sign of Beethoven, a figure who will return to repeatedly in his work. Years of artistic maturity is marked by collaboration with Auguste Rodin, who then dominated European sculpture. The orders flooded, including the facade of the Theatre des Champs-Elysees, made in one night, and "Heracles Archer, "exhibited in 1910 at the National Society of Fine Arts alongside the" Bust "of Rodin. The success beyond even the framework of France, being invited to the Venice Biennale. He also teaches his art and forms including dozens of artists including Giacometti, Maillol. Antoine Bourdelle is buried in Montparnasse cemetery.
The specificity of the art of Bourdelle, original and independent artist, is difficult to assess in an era characterized simultaneously influence exerted by Rodin and the powerful reaction not figurative Cubist and abstract, which rejects it. Bourdelle does not seem to have been influenced by his training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. The decisive event of his art education was his encounter with Rodin. It is part of his studio for years, performing in marble and stone works of the master key, attentive to what is not confused with the commercial work of practitioners subservient. It remains spiritually close to Rodin, was one of his confidants and a corresponding alert, but it emerged in 1909 from the grip of the master. The art of Bourdelle, uneven, often confusing, based on a traditional concept of sculpture that is shared by all the nineteenth century. This art is limited to the exclusive study of the human figure through it, the artist expresses feelings and passions.
For more information:
http://www.cheminsdememoire.gouv.fr/page/affichegh.php?idGH=401&idLang
http://theses.enc.sorbonne.fr/document1026.html
http://lavieillechouette.com/images/BOURDELLE.pdf
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_Bourdelle
