CHARLES DESPIAU (Mont-de-Marsan, 1874 - 1946). "Assia. Terracotta. Exhibitions:... Lot 27

CHARLES DESPIAU (Mont-de-Marsan, 1874 - 1946). "Assia. Terracotta. Exhibitions: "European sculpture in the 20th century", European Museum of Modern Art (MEAM), Barcelona, 2014. Measurements: 86 cm (height). Charles Despiau moved to Paris at the age of 17, on a scholarship from the Landes department, and entered the School of Decorative Arts as a pupil of Georges Lemaire1 and later the School of Fine Arts as well as the studio of the sculptor Louis-Ernest Barrias. In 1904 he married Marie Rudel. Portraiture was Despiau's favourite subject - which did not prevent him from creating statues, especially in his later years - and he exhibited every year at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. His portraits were remarkable for their plastic power and psychological truth, thanks to his long and passionate work. In 1907, encouraged by the plaster bust of Paulette, Auguste Rodin asked him to work with him. This was the beginning of a period of professional practice until 1914, the year of his mobilisation for the Great War. He was then forced to abandon the marble carving entrusted to him by Rodin of the Génie du Repos Eternel, intended for the memorial to the painter Puvis de Chavannes. The plaster, which measures two metres, made it necessary to hire a second workshop, Villa Corot, where Despiau had settled with his wife, Marie. Demobilised after the war and Rodin, who had died in 1917, refused to finish the carving of the marble of the Genius. The unfinished marble is now on display in the garden gallery of the Musée Rodin in Paris. On his return to Paris, he met a group of artists, which one day an art journalist named with great success the "Schnegg gang", a group of sculptors in which Lucien Schnegg, Gaston Schnegg's brother, was the main driving force: Antoine Bourdelle, Robert Wlérick, Leon-Ernest Drivier, François Pompon, Louis Dejean, Alfred Jean Halou, Charles Malfray, Auguste de Niederhäusern, Henry Arnold (in French), Jane Poupelet, Yvonne Serruys... After Lucien's death in 1909, the gang continued to gather around Gaston. The plaster of Genius, donated to Despiau by Auguste Rodin, remained at the Villa Corot, then moved in 1930, to rue Brillat-Savarin where he had his house and workshop built, when Charles Despiau finally knew success with his first exhibition-sale in New York. The heirs of this plaster, Mr and Mrs Alain Kotlar, after cleaning and restoring it, donated this "original" to the Musée des plaster casts de Meudon in 2001. The original bronze castings of the Genius are on sale at the Despiau workshop. In 1932, Despiau met Assia Granatouroff, a professional model for many artists from Dora Maar to Germaine Krull via Soutine, and asked her to pose for him, which enabled him to sublimate the female body. In his sculpture, strength, beauty, serenity, simplicity, Assia thus became the modern Venus of the Italian Renaissance, and even in 20th century art a journalist compared Despiau's art to: "The Donatello of the 20th century", said Anatole de Monzie. Assia is one of the most beautiful female nudes in the history of sculpture. She conforms to the canons of the beautiful young woman, she corresponds to the conception of the ideal woman. Despiau's works can be found in many private collections around the world. As for museums, his works are to be found in the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris (a very large number of sculptures and drawings bequeathed to him by his wife, Marie, on her death2), the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris, the Musée de Mont-de-Marsan, the Musée de Mont-de-Marsan. Numerous museums abroad, including the Musée National des Beaux-Arts in Algiers.