Gilbert-privat (1892-1969) The Château De Monfort And The Dordogne

Auguste Gilbert PRIVAT, known as GILBERT-PRIVAT
(Toulouse 1892 – Soulac sur Mer 1969)
The Château de Monfort
Watercolor
H. 39 cm; L. 29 cm at sight
Signed lower right, located (formerly dated and located in pencil, then erased – August 22, 1948)

Son of a wood sculptor, he logically began his training in his father's workshop in Toulouse , before joining the School of Fine Arts in the pink city. He then continued in a completely logical manner in Paris where he joined the ENSBA in the sculpture workshop of Jules Coutan. Upon returning from his mobilization during the Great War, he quickly exhibited in the major Parisian salons from 1920 and received the Prix de Rome the following year. He developed the purest Art Deco style in his works, which earned him awards in 1925 at the Exhibition of Decorative Arts. Many of his sculpted works are unique pieces, but some were produced by other companies such as DIM or the Sèvres factory. Major achievements were erected in the form of decorative fountains, Monuments to the Dead, to the Resistance, etc. Gilbert-Privat's work therefore regularly intersects with everyday life. A lesser known part of his work, he produced quite a few watercolors and paintings, many of them landscapes of places he passed through. His links with Périgord are physical... In 1937 he married Odette de Puiffe de Magondeaux (family originally from La Coquille, then Saint-Cyprien) who also published a biography of her husband sixty years later. Locally Gilbert-Privat left important bronzes, notably of Fénelon and Montaigne (both cast in 1942) as well as the bust of Yvon Delbos in Montignac. The MAAP in Périgueux preserves several sculptures by him.

In the middle of August 1948, Gilbert-Privat stationed himself on the heights of the Dordogne, on the same bank as the Château de Monfort, a few steps from Domme. This high watercolor clearly shows us the precipice between this fortress and the river which was for centuries an enclave owned by the Turennes, within the county of Périgord.