Philippe Solary 1840 1906 Or Solari But Signed With A Y Portrait With Gentle Smile Late 19th Century

Mix technic from Philippe Solary 1840 1906 Or Solari But Signed With A Y Portrait With a Gentle Smile Late 19th century - Gouache dimensions 27.7 cm x 21 cm on paper circa 19th century - Great discovery that this sculptor artist but also occasionally painter trained in Fine Arts of Aix en Provence, at the Swiss Academy, winner of the Granet prize...Philippe Solari, born May 2, 1840 in Aix-en-Provence, died in the same city on January 20, 1906, is a Provençal sculptor, Italian origin naturalized French. Born into a poor family with seven children, including six girls, Philippe Solari owes his education to the Notre-Dame pension, where he met Émile Zola. The two men will become very friends. Every Thursday evening, between 1860 and 1865, Zola welcomed Cézanne and Solari to his home for artistic talks. Very attracted to art, and sculpture in particular, Solari then attended the Aix-en-Provence school of fine arts before continuing his training at the Swiss Academy in Paris. He married Thérèse Strempel in 1867, with whom he had two children, a daughter born in 1867 and a son, Émile Solari born in 1873, to whom Émile Zola was godfather. Winner of the Granet Prize, he was able to leave for Paris, where he attended the Swiss Academy, but found it difficult to survive as an artist. The painter Achille Emperaire writes: "All have support, none of them, except poor Solari, is strictly required to worry about tomorrow." He began at the Salon of 1867. At the Salon of 1868, Zola said of his Standing Negro: “I find in Philippe Solari one of our two or three truly modern sculptors. He said goodbye to the dream of absolute beauty... Beauty for him became a living expression of nature, the interpretation of the human body.” Tomb of Émile Zola, sculpted by Philippe Solari. One of his works, a bust of the Dutch painter Johan Barthold Jongkind, was unveiled on May 21, 1904 at the Montmartre cemetery in the presence of its author who preferred to disappear without making himself known when the sculpture was presented. This reserve which characterizes him is undoubtedly the origin of the many closed doors that he will encounter during his career. A first cast of Jongkind's bust was installed on rue Ganay, in Aix-en-Provence. In the last years of his life, he created two portraits of Cézanne, one from memory (called Cézanne dreamer)7, the other in the workshop of the master of Aix. The journalist Jules Bernex reports that, for the occasion, “at the final session, the sculptor, to put the final touches, took out an eyeglass from his pocket and adjusted it to his nose. He signs his works with a Y for Solary. While working on the creation of floats for the Aix carnival, Solari fell ill with pneumonia. As he was transported by cab to the hospital, he murmured: "What a shame with this weather." Solari died the same year as Cézanne. The painter Joseph Rallaisou declares about them: “The year which ends will have seen the passing of two artists whose existence, despite different situations of fortune, was marked by the same detachment from practical things, the same propensity for emotions pure and naive. One was a sculptor, the other a painter. [...] The affluence of Cézanne and the poverty of Philippe Solari experienced equal joys; they were neighbors during the lives of the two artists; they have just descended into death holding hands: the painter and the sculptor succumbed in identical conditions, struck by the same illness. » He is buried in the Saint-Pierre cemetery in Aix-en-Provence. Philippe Solari was born and died in Aix 1840 -1906. Son of a modest stonemason, Solari, like those of his generation, took courses at the City Drawing School. Companion of the young years of Zola and Cezanne, he also dreams of conquering Paris. Significant orders will reward his patience and his work. His magnified bust of Zola will be the subject of two bronze casts, one of which is in Aix (currently in Parc Jourdan), the other in the Montmartre cemetery. Article written by Jacky Chabert