Arthur Dupagne (1895-1961)

"Gold washer" or "Young African at Dilowga" Bronze proof with nuanced brown patina Posthumous cast around 1980 Numbered 2/12 Signed on the terrace at the back Height: 53 cm Biography: Arthur DUPAGNE (1895-1961) Belgian School Arthur Dupagne was born on December 13, 1895 in Liège. He would have started sculpting at the age of nine, but his parents, seeing an artistic career with a dim view, forced him to do technical studies and obtained a license. in mechanics, electricity and mining. On the strength of his success and despite family opposition, the young Dupagne took evening classes in sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Liège. He obtains the first prize in each of the classes attended and succeeds in four years of a course planned over eight years. He then worked in Liège in his father's ironwork workshop for four years but devoted his spare time to sculpture. He exhibited academic works at the 1924 Triennial Salon. His training as a technician will allow him to combine rigor and precision with his sensitivity as an artist. The family business is experiencing difficulties and Arthur Dupagne has to support his wife and granddaughter. Also, at the age of twenty-one, he goes to the African continent as an engineer for a mining company. On June 6, 1927, he embarked alone, for a first mission. He is an engineer in the service of the International Forestry and Mining Society of Congo in Tshikapa, in Tshorkwé country, where he works on the exploitation of the diamondiferous fields discovered on this site in 1910. Alongside the exercise of his profession, he studies the statuary art of the tshorkwé (Batshock or Kioto), Mumpende and Bassala tribes. He also casts with passion an artist's gaze on the anatomy and gestures of Africans. It represents men and women in their nudity, supple and muscular. He abandons an academic point of view in favor of a realistic and powerful sculpture, he chooses subjects around him in their actions of daily life. Her favorite working material is clay. Unfired, his clay sculptures were often punctured by termites. Also, to preserve his pieces, he uses plastiline and plaster that he takes with him on his second mission. The very many sketches modeled during his stay served him, on his return, to create works in bronze, but also in wood, stone and marble. In 1935, after 8 years of expatriation on the African continent, he completed his third mission on behalf of the mining company, returned to Belgium and presented his works in a gallery and this exhibition was a great success. Then, he devoted himself exclusively to his art. International Exhibition in Paris in 1937, Water Exhibition in Liège and International Exhibition in New York in 1939, Knight of the Order of the Crown in 1940. Very good state of conservation General delivery conditions: We organize delivery within the whole world. An estimate on request will be established at the time of your purchase.