Draft:Amédée Dubois de La Patellière

Drawing by Amédée Dubois de la Patellière, 1917

Drawing by Amédée Dubois de la Patellière, June 1916

Amédée Dubois de La Patellière, born on July 5, 1890 in Vallet and died on January 9, 1932 in Paris, was a French painter.

He achieved success during the interwar period thanks to his orginal and dark work, situated between the tradition of the old masters and modernity.

Biography

Context

Amédée de La Patellière was born in the heart of the Nantes Vineyard region, at the Château de Bois-Benoît in Vallet, to Félix Dubois de La Patellière and Isabelle Le Grand de La Liraye. He was raised in the countryside in a large family. In 1913, he wrote: "Once again, I feel like the child of the countryside at Bois-Benoît...".Thus, his work would be strongly influenced by this tranquil place, this property hidden amidst the vineyards. The large house had an interior courtyard lined with cellars and presses. As the youngest of the family, he was doted on by his mother. He knew little of his father, who passed away when he was 10 years old. He was raised in a family with an open and curious spirit, descended from a minor nobility of doctors and lawyers. He studied nearby, at the high school in Vannes, and passed his baccalaureate in Nantes.

He moved to Paris in 1910 to attend the Académie Julian. Afterwards, he split his time between his family home in Bois-Benoît, Paris, and the south of Seine-et-Oise where he settled in the 1920s. He was wounded in combat during the First World War. He married Suzanne Lamon in 1924. From 1929 to 1932, he was a professor at the Académie Ranson in Paris and was one of the founding artists (alongside Yves Alix, Robert Lotiron, and Louis-Joseph Soulas) of the Young Contemporary Painting group. He was also a friend of Bertrand Mogniat-Duclos.

Seriously ill from 1929 onwards, he died in Paris in 1932.

Aesthetics

Amédée de la Patellière's works depict rural life in understated tones that highlight the earth. He is strongly inspired by his childhood memories and frequent stays in the area where he grew up. There, he rediscovers the culture of the vineyard and the atmospheres and lights that permeate his works. He would set up his easel in nature to immerse himself in his surroundings.

Rurality is not so much emphasized through landscapes, as is often the case, but through farm scenes. Amédée de la Patellière seems to have been more inspired by the personalities who inhabit the countryside rather than by the countryside itself. This sensitivity to humanity is exalted in his manner of constructing his works, often immersed in chiaroscuro that magnifies the depicted objects and characters. He transcribes a certain nobility of rural life with his compositions that stage motionless individuals, rarely in action and often sporting serious expressions.

His work is characterized by firm outlines, chromatic tones, solid forms, and thoughtful execution. The distant horizon is never shown but suggested by nuances of colors and subtle transitions of fluid shadows. His aim is not so much to copy nature but to be in harmony with it. His paintings are not ethnological studies representing agricultural rhythms and peasants, but rather an attempt to rediscover the contemplative atmosphere of his native land. Through his compositions, he manages to evoke a feeling, a particular ambiance. He creates a balance in his compositions that communicates the serenity and attentive vision of the artist. He expresses in his works the simple beauty of the places of his childhood.

In 1930, he confided, "The plans are well defined and surround my order as follows: a light, a dark, the sky. Every time this order arises, I find myself in the arbor." He cannot be classified in the category of "painters witnessing their times" since he focuses on representing his region at the rhythm of rural life, far from modernization and industrialization. Most of his works function as memories. The scenes he recomposes in his studio are interpretations of images from his childhood and give the sensation of total and complete happiness. His entire oeuvre is based on reproducing emotions he felt in the places he frequented. He tries to create a sense of continuity between the past and the present. The human figure is, of course, very present, but he portrays a tender and poetic world populated by animals bathed in changing lights. Through renouncing color, focusing on essential forms, and with genuine sensitivity, he seeks a visual poetic expression.

In a period when surrealism is prominent, Amédée de la Patellière anchors himself in a romantic tradition based on his childhood memories and everyday objects. He imparts a mystery and beauty to the most ordinary things, magnifying them through his particular use of palette. In a similar aesthetic, he draws and paints life on the front lines. These lesser-known works depict the horrors of war in great simplicity and in dark tones.

Distinction

• Knight of the Legion of Honor (1931) for his contributions to the Fine Arts.

Exhibitions

• 1945: Retrospective at the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris.
• 1973: Exhibition at the Galliera Museum in Paris.
• 2014: Exhibition co-produced by the Museum of Fine Arts in Nantes, La Piscine in Roubaix, the Mont-de-Piété Museum in Bergues, and the MUDO - Museum of Oise in Beauvais.

Works in public collections

• Nanterre, La Contemporaine.

Annexes

Bibliographie

• Roger Brielle, Amédée de La Patellière, collection "The New Painters" n° 46, Paris, Gallimard, 1932 ISBN 9782071004620.
• Jean Alazard, Amédée de la Patelliere, Pierre Cailler, Geneva, 1953.
• Michel Charzat, La Patellière, Painter of the Real and the Marvelous, in "The Young French Painting", Hazan, Paris, 2010 pp. 87-92.
• Patrick Descamps, Amédée de la Patelliere (1890-1932), The Splinters of Shadow, Exhibition Catalog, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, Gourcuff Gradenigo, Paris, 2014

Liens externes

• Fine arts resources :
  • Artists of the World Online
  • Bénézit
  • MutualArt
  • RKDartists
  • Union List of Artist Names
• Entries in general dictionaries or encyclopedias :

• Dictionnaire biographique du lycée Clemenceau
• Store norske leksikon
• Universalis
• Authority records :

• VIAF
• ISNI
• BnF (données)
• IdRef
• LCCN
• GND
• Espagne
• NUKAT
• Vatican
• WorldCat
• Website of the Friends of Amédée de La Patellière