The Arts Crowd 2

We'd known for a long time that the Loire was a favourite with Turner. Then as we explored the area better we discovered so many well known artists who spent their time in the Indre et Loire, such as Max Ernst and Alexander Calder.

In this weekend's Nouvelle République there was a half-page feature with the headline 'Champigny-sur-Veude n'a pas oublié Soutine'. Mike spotted it first and showed me the piece while we were having a cup of coffee together. The village, Champigny, we know quote well through various contacts who live over there. It's also close to Richlieu so is often tied up with annual music festival which we like to support. Not once though in five years has anyone mentioned the name of Chaïm Soutine and we haven't seen anything about him anywhere either. If you look him up on the internet you'll read that he was a Belarussian Jew, who was hugely influential in the Paris expressionist movement. There's also reference to him escaping from the capital to avoid capture by the Gestapo.

From August 1941 to August 1943 Chaïm Soutine found refuge in Champigny. Quite how this came about is not explained in the article, but he was hidden in the house of the village policeman. There are many people still within Champigny who as youngsters posed for Soutine and last weekend they came together to commemorate the artist and his work.

Clearly this was an important event and not just locally, but nationally and internationally. Three hundred people came, amongst whom were obviously locals, but also academics, French authors, historians and Maria Ozerova, who is the scientific and cultural attachée at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. Her presence helps clarify the importance of the artist and his work. 

Gabriel Leclerc et Christiane Delaunay

A particularly emotional moment was the meeting of Christiane Delaunay and Gabriel Leclerc. At the time they posed together for one of Soutine's paintings, they were 12 and three years old respectively. They hadn't seen each other since the second world war. One person who wasn't there was Marcel Varvou, the son of the local policeman in whose house Soutine stayed. He had also posed for Soutine and had been given his palette as a gift of thanks. According to the N.R., disappeared from the village. 

In hindsight we definitely did miss out by not getting into The Orangerie during our Paris visit. Although how much we would have seen I'm not sure. But twenty-two of Soutine's painting are held there. The link is in French, but the curator speaks very clearly. We did however see some of his work at  the Musée d'Orsay, when we went to Paris last November. The Musée had a retrospective of his work on display at the time (October 2012 to January 2013). 

When we go back next year to Paris, we'll make sure we're at The Orangerie first thing and at the front of the queue.