Draft:Coubertin Foundation

Collection of the Fondation of Coubertin

Location	78470 Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse

The Foundation of Coubertin is a French foundation that aims to perfect the professional, intellectual and cultural training of young people from manual trades and to transmit a number of values to them: concern for perfection and quality of work, sense of honesty and responsibility.

The meeting of the two founders

The Foundation of Coubertin was born from the meeting in 1949 of two personalities:

• Yvonne de Coubertin (1893–1974), the last descendant of this name with her sister Marie-Marcelle (she is the niece of Pierre de Coubertin, re-creator of the Olympic Games), owner of the estate whose grandfather Bonnaventure Julien Frédy de Coubertin was mayor of Saint-JeanRémy-lès-Chevreuse and Father Paul Frédy de Coubertin, literary author;
• Jean Bernard, artist and renovator of the Companionship of Duty of the Tour of France, only child of sculptor Joseph Bernard.

In 1950 they created an association for the development of rural companionship. This association became in 1973 the Foundation of Coubertin, immediately recognized as a public utility.

Description

The domain of Coubertin (80 hectares) is located in the valley of Chevreuse in Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse, in the countryside (although five minutes walk is enough to reach the RER station).

The entrance to the estate opens onto a majestic linden driveway leading to the palace gate. Behind the gate, a French driveway leads to a castle of the late seventeenth century, with a sober facade. To the right of the castle, below, is the garden of bronzes and behind the castle, an English park. The castle is listed as a historical monument by decree of 7 September 1945.

Mission of the Foundation of Coubertin

The purpose of the Coubertin Foundation is to perfect the professional, intellectual and cultural training of young people from manual trades and to transmit a number of values to them: concern for perfection and quality of work, sense of honesty and responsibility. Each year, the institution receives about thirty young people, belonging to the trades of carpenter, cabinetmaker, metalworker, bricklayer, stonemason, plasterer and coppersmith, mostly from the Workers' Association of Companions of Duty and Tour of France.

Professional training is provided in master's workshops, known as :

• The Saint-Jacques workshops, for metalwork, carpentry and stone-cutting; the Saint-Jacques workshops carried out the complete reconstruction of the royal gate at the Versailles palace as it existed before 1771;
• Foundry of Coubertin, for metalwork and cast art; in 2008, the foundry realized the Flame of Liberty of Jean Cardot, realized for the Embassy of the United States in Paris and inaugurated in the presence of the United States and French presidents.

The collections of the Coubertin Foundation

The bronze garden of Robert Auzelle.

The collections of the Foundation of Coubertin are located in the palace of the estate. The Foundation received from its second president, Jean Bernard, a donation of 21 sculptures and 1,500 drawings by his father, the sculptor Joseph Bernard. This donation is the beginning and the core of the collections of the Foundation of Coubertin.

In 1994, the workshop funds of sculptor René Collamarini (1904–1983) were added to the collections.

The Foundation has a set of sculptures ranging from the end of the 19th century to the 20th century (116 pieces): Robert Wlérick, Pablo Gargallo, Carlo Sarrabezolles, Jean Chauvin, Étienne Hajdu, Marta Pan, Jean Cardot as well as an important choice of sculptor drawings. The Foundation also benefits from deposits of sculptures (about sixty), including an important deposit of the Bourdelle museum and pieces by Étienne Martin, Marta Pan, Parvine Curie, Karel, Dominique Labauvie, John Kelly.

Around this collection, the architect Robert Auzelle has set up an open-air sculpture museum, the Jardin des Bronzes.

The conservation of the Collections organizes an exhibition of sculpture every year and the estate opens to the public for two months.

In 2002, the collections of the Coubertin Foundation were awarded the label of "Musée de France".

Major exhibitions from 1986 to 2012

• 1986 : sculptures du xxe siècle ;
• 1987 : bronzes d’automne, de Rodin à Zadkine ;
• 1988 : la sculpture en taille directe en France, de 1900 à 1950 ;
• 1989 : pierres et marbres de Joseph Bernard ;
• 1990 : Aux grands hommes, David d’Angers ;
• 1991 : genèse d’une sculpture, le monument à Michel Servet, de Joseph Bernard ;
• 1992 : Jean Chauvin ;
• 1993 : Étienne Hajdu ;
• 1996 : Étienne Martin ;
• 1998 : Gilioli ;
• 1999: course of sculpture in Île-de-France (selection from the collection of the Regional Contemporary Art Fund (FRAC) of Île-de-France);
• 2000: Marta Pan;
• 2001: Jean Cardot;
• 2002: Eugène Dodeigne;
• 2005: Nicolas Alquin;
• 2007: forty drawings by Joseph Bernard (exhibition at the Orangerie of Madame Élisabeth in Versailles);
• 2008: Jean Bernard, artist and companion of duty, on the centenary of his birth;
• 2009: sculptures by Antoine Poncet (poetic resonances with Jean Arp and Philippe Jaccottet);
• 2010: sculptures by Ousmane Sow (May 8 to July 11);
• 2011: a look at Rodin's photographs, videos, installations by Jean-Yves Cousseau (from May 7 to July 10, 2011);
• 2012: sculptures by Denis Monfleur (from May 5 to July 22, 2012).

Frequentation

Frequentation numbers 2001- 2017

Year	free entries	paid entries	Total
2001	0	5688	5688
2002	0	6421	6421
2003	1170	5051	6221
2004	709	5284	5993
2005	1010	6545	7555
2006	2640	4666	7306
2007	2154	809	2963
2008	2217	1587	3804
2009	1811	2256	4067
2010	2758	4018	6776
2011	2392	792	3184
2013	504	1066	1570
2014	509	1140	1649
2015	572	1160	1732
2016	0	59	59
2017	312	682	994

See also

• Masterpiece (companionship) (on French Wikipedia)
• Apprenticeship
• Pierre de Coubertin
• Metalworking