François Brochet, Homage To Balthus, Bronze

François Brochet (1925-2001)
La Belle Coiffure (tribute to Balthus)
Bronze signed and numbered 2/8
ANPIRE stamp
Haut. 30 cm

Born in 1925 in Paris, he is the son of the painter and playwright Henri Brochet. Familiarly, he was trained in dance, theater and puppetry. In 1941, he was a student of the sacred art sculptor Fernand Pyau, from whom he learned direct carving of wood and polychromy. This teaching confirms his desire to be the continuator of artisanal traditions, particularly that of direct carving.

A visit to Le Corbusier also impressed him. In 1946, he settled in Auxerre, where he created three polychrome stones four meters high for the Technical College. His first personal exhibition took place in 1948 in Paris, during which he was noticed by the critic Michel Florisoone. From 1948 to 1958, François Brochet had a significant activity in goldsmithing and creations for sacred art. In 1963, he received the Bourdelle Prize for Sculpture. He regularly exhibits in Paris as an individual.

His audience is significant in the United States, where solo exhibitions are devoted to him in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. In 1960, he began work on his major work, the Massacre of the Innocents group, twelve statues of which were exhibited in 1962. Followed by the group of The Happy Family, The Silence, The Death of a Man comprising four two-meter figures , Les Amants, Homage to Le Corbusier, L’Envol.

From 1963, Brochet worked with painting and watercolor and created large wool wall hangings. His polychrome wooden and sometimes stone figures, with empty eyes and anguished expressions, are intended to be in the tradition of archaic popular craftsmanship, highly praised in the circles of French imagery of the interwar period. His majestic bronze figures, very slender to the point of mannerism, display a stylization in the thirties style.