Gaston Lanchaise

Gaston Lanchaise

Introduction

American sculptor of French birth. He was the fourth child of Jean and Marie Barre Lachaise. His father, a cabinetmaker, encouraged his son's artistic abilities, and in 1895 Lachaise entered the Ecole Bernard Palissy; in 1898 he continued his studies at the Académie Nationale des Beaux-Arts. Exceptionally talented, Lachaise exhibited in the Paris Salons of 1899, 1901, 1902 and 1904, despite his young age.

Born in Paris March 19, 1882, son of a furniture manufacturer, Gaston Lachaise studied sculpture at the National School of Fine Arts from 1898 to 1906. About 1902 or 1903, meeting Isabel Lachaise Dutaud Nagel, an American woman ten years his senior, married with one child. He falls passionately in love with her, and when it returns to Boston, Lachaise follows a year later. After the divorce of Isabel, Gaston Lachaise's wife in 1917. It will then cease, and until his death, taking inspiration from his wife's body for sculpture, often monumental, who will soon in the forefront of modern sculptors. His works will be faster in most major American museums.

Lachaise's sculpture, which marked a significant art of the twentieth century, is little known in France. That's why the Museum of Art and Industry - The pool of Roubaix organized with the support of the Foundation Lachaise, a major retrospective of his work, with nearly eighty sculptures and numerous drawings.

The book published for the occasion includes essays by Jean Clair, Hilton Kramer, Louise Bourgeois - Famous Artist and other French-born American sculptor - and Paula R. Hornbostel, showing the first pictures taken by Lachaise his wife, and finally "A few words about my sculptures," the 1928 text by Gaston Lachaise.

Discussion

Lachaise, the son of a cabinetmaker, entered the 13-year-old art school, where educ + or decorative arts, and from 1898 to 1904 he studied sculpture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts with Gabriel-Jules Thomas . He began his career as a designer of decorative Art Nouveau to the jeweler René Lalique .

In love with a young American woman, Lachaise immigrated to America in 1906 , where he worked in Boston for HH Kitson , sculptor of military monuments academic. In 1912 Lachaise traveled to New York to work as assistant to the sculptor Paul Manship . His work, like Manship, can be seen in Rockefeller Center .

He began his artistic career as a designer of decorative style Art Nouveau , the French jeweler Rene Lalique . After falling in love with an American, Isabel Dutaud Nagel, whom he married in 1917 , Lachaize emigrated to U.S. in 1906 . He works in Boston for Henry Hudson Kitson , sculptor of military monuments. In 1912 , Lachaize goes to work to New York as assistant to the sculptor Paul Manship .

Along the western façade of the GE Building in New York , four sculptures Lachaize represent the foundation of civilization: the spirit of progress, the gifts of the earth to humanity, the conquest of space, taking engineering sunlight. It was inspired by his 1927 figure of Floating ...