Calvary Of Créviac In Nozay By Jean Fréour - Loire Atlantique

This monochrome earthenware was made in a workshop in Issé near Chateaubriant.
Circa 1945. Height 28 cm.
This calvary is a reproduction of a work that Jean Fréour created in Nozay. This magnificent calvary and the many figures surrounding it are made of blue stone, only part of the base is made of granite. It is a recognition calvary 1939-1945 commissioned by Madame Guy Récipon née Letourneau.
Jean Fréour (1919-2010) was born in Nantes. At a young age, Fréour proclaimed his desire to be a sculptor, which did not please his parents. His determined character convinced them, and in 1936 he left for the Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux where he followed Malric's classes. In 1939, he was awarded a scholarship to continue his studies at the Beaux-Arts in Paris, proof of his talent. But that's without taking into account his strong temperament and his hermit side, which doesn't fit in either Paris or Henri Bouchard's studio. It's the first of his unnatural decisions. There will be others. He returns to Issé near Châteaubriant to live with his grandfather and settles into a barn to work there. In 1942, a gallery owner from Nantes organizes an exhibition for him and the orders begin to arrive. Jean Fréour mainly carried out public commissions, often religious, from town halls, but he also worked for collectors and a few private individuals. In 1952, winner of the competition for the Casa Velázquez foundation, he left for Madrid for two years, normally. But once again, far from his native land, the hermit does not feel at ease, after five months spent in Spain he returns home. In 1953, while he was staying at the HB factory, a modeler working in Vallauris, impressed by his technique, informed him that Picasso was looking for a sculptor to create his ceramics. Once again, he declined the offer. Jean Fréour could only work for himself. Then in 1955, he settled in Batz-sur-Mer and resumed his gigantic commissions: a five-meter-eighty Christ the King overlooking the Loroux-Bottereau vineyard, a two-meter-sixty Saint Conwoïon in pink granite… He sculpted all materials: wood, marble, granite, onyx, nothing resisted him. Then in 1966, he abandoned religious subjects for a while to return to his first love: the sculpture of the female nude. In his work, sensuality is present, but without any troubled eroticism. A face is the transparent image of the soul, a beautiful body, the home of the spirit. It was also at this time that he began painting, creating landscapes and still lifes in watercolor. In 1969, he married his muse, Soizic de Closmadeuc, who brought a new radiance to his art. He was a proud, honest, profound, and spiritual artist who rejected trends and who intended to draw each of his works from himself. He was a solitary man in love with pure beauty and endowed with a sacred character.