René de Saint-Marceaux

Who he was

Charles-René de Paul de Saint-Marceaux (born 23 September 1845 at Reims; died 23 April 1915 in Paris) was a French sculptor and medallist, the artist whom Marie names, with Bastien-Lepage, as the greatest of her time. He came of a family of Champagne wine merchants of Reims (his grandfather had been mayor of the city) and went to Paris at eighteen to study under François Jouffroy at the École des Beaux-Arts (#Jouffroy). He exhibited at the Salon from 1868. His marble #Le_Genie_gardant_le_secret_de_la_tombe (Salon of 1879; now in the Musée d'Orsay) made his name; his #L_Arlequin followed in 1879-80. He became chevalier of the Légion d'honneur in 1880, officer in 1889 and commander in 1913, and was elected to the Académie des beaux-arts in 1905. Among his later works are the bust of Ernest Renan (1883; see #Ernest_Renan), Charlotte Corday (Reims, 1900) and the monuments to Alphonse Daudet (1901) and Alexandre Dumas fils (1906). In 1892 he married Marguerite Jourdain (1850-1930), widow of the painter Eugène Baugnies, whose Paris salon became famous (fr.wikipedia.org, "René de Saint-Marceaux"; en.wikipedia.org).

In the diary he is "Saint Marceaux" or "Saint-Marceaux", in 1883 also "le Général" (099.0202-0205) and "the sculptor without hair" (099.0265).

Marie and Saint-Marceaux

First meeting (1879)

On 4 October 1879 Marie writes that "painting is Bastien-Lepage and sculpture is Saint-Marceaux" (086.0345). On 19 October she calls on him with her friend Amanda, whom she describes as the strong Swede, and presents the drawings as the work of a brother who has begun to paint; he finds them "the drawings of a sculptor rather than a painter" and says he would have been glad to do as well at eighteen (086.0387-0397). At the end she admits "it is I", and he is "very kind", tells her how to begin and promises to visit to advise her (086.0398). Marie describes him that day as small, dark, with a black beard and a bald head, a pale complexion, "only thirty-two" (086.0388); he was thirty-four. On 8 November she visits him again with M. de Morgan, and he does not recognise her (or pretends not to); she finds him "a true artist and a man of the world", with a poodle and white mice (086.0497-0501). He leaves cards on 14 November (086.0528).

Admiration from afar (1880 - 1881)

In March 1880 Saint-Marceaux advises her again and praises her painting (087.0655-0656), and Marie finds that he leaves her uneasy: "absent, he walks quickly, speaks quickly, a bundle of nerves, and I am like that myself" (087.0656). At the Salon on 16 May 1880 she is stopped by his Arlequin, which convinces her that she had not exaggerated him after the previous year's medal of honour (as she calls it): "it is more than talent" (088.0211). In June 1880 she reproaches him for never visiting and fears she has bored him (088.0773-0775). In February 1881 she sees a terracotta of his and writes that, unlike Bastien, "he will never be led astray" (091.0095), and on 19 February that she is "enthusiastic about Saint-Marceaux" (091.0156), whose house at 161 boulevard Malesherbes would once have inspired "ten mad pages" (091.0156).

The visit and the correspondence (December 1882 - 1883)

On 11 December 1882 he calls at the Bashkirtseffs' house, while she is out. Marie, having just written that God, Michel-Angelo and Saint-Marceaux are the figures she raises to heaven, leaves a mocking card asking whether he came in the hope of finding nobody (097.0225-0229). On 31 December she goes to the rue de Sèze exhibition, where she judges that "no one has ever made sculpture like Saint-Marceaux" and, "at moments", places him above Bastien-Lepage (097.0323-0324). In January 1883 she worries that her adoration of him has been repeated to him and misunderstood (098.0022). On 1 February she meets him at a reception, finding him "a great artist with a Shakespeare head" who is gracious to her (098.0244; 098.0258). On 27 February 1883, asking herself whether Saint-Marceaux or Bastien has come, she finds instead that she has made the sketch of her own statue (098.0422). On 11 April she sees a reduction of the Arlequin at the Arts Décoratifs and says that art has never moved her more (099.0103); on 18 April she hears that he is making a bust of Bastien-Lepage (099.0139). When she asks #Emile_Bastien_Lepage to find where Saint-Marceaux buys his clay and studio tools, the sculptor writes himself, promising to bring her the addresses (099.0162); on 21 April he calls on Mme Bashkirtseff (099.0165). At the Salon on 25 April he speaks to her "ten times" and talks with Émile and her about Jules and "the General" (099.0198-0205); on 30 April she poses in front of Jules to "adore this bald sculptor" (099.0265).

Teacher of her sculpture (May - August 1883)

On 28 May 1883 Saint-Marceaux calls on the family after Marie's mention at the Salon, and she charms him with her opinions on art; he says each time he goes to the Salon he stands before a first-medal picture to remind himself of how little the medal means (100.0021-0034). On 29 May she visits his studio: he shows her the barely-begun statue of a woman dancing, "slow, oriental, a reverie of the dance", and gives her "precise instructions, which I will follow religiously"; she writes that "Saint Marceaux sees better even than Bastien" (100.0035-0036). From 5 June she works with a model on a figure in the round "following Saint-Marceaux's indications" (100.0069); on 16 June she sees the bust of Renan at his studio (100.0170; 100.0173). On 26 July he comes to look at her clay group in her studio and tells her to go on as she is; she gets "no compliment" except for the portrait of Dina (100.0438-0439; 100.0459). She writes that she hopes to attract him as well as Bastien, "either of them would suffice me" (099.0327), and that he has "an attachment" elsewhere (100.0479). In September she has Bojidar send him, unsigned, a letter full of praise of the Arlequin and the Renan bust (101.0347; 101.0407). On 21 August 1883 she writes that her will will consist of "a statue and a painting by Saint-Marceaux and Jules", in a chapel in Paris, entered every anniversary with masses by Verdi and Pergolesi (101.0226). In February 1884 she still asks whether a new artist is "Saint-Marceaux or Bastien" (103.0287), her last mention of him.

Related entries

Sources