Parçay-les-Pins - Musée Jules Desbois

"Of all forms of art, sculpture is the one that can be understood by everyone"
Jules Desbois

Jules Desbois was born, and grew up in Parçay Les Pins in the Maine et Loire region of France. There he studied under the sculptor Bouriché, then at L'Ecole des Beaux Arts (School of Fine Art and Architecture) in Angers. His early talent enabled him to secure a scholarship at L'Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. He worked in Cavelier's workshop, a former student of David d'Angers. It was there that he picked up a taste for Antiquity and learned the art of modelling. He met Auguste Rodin whilst working on different projects. He then joined the master's workshop. At that time Rodin was very much in demand and he surrounded himself with talented sculptors like Desbois himself or Camille Claudel. From this collaboration a friendship and mutual influence was born.

Jules Desbois bases his work on exploring movement, on his attachment to feminine models and realism. A perfectionist, he is famous for the intricacy of his modelling and for his use of texture.
He was a renowned and famous artist whilst still alive, and many of his works were bought by the government.
Desbois wasn't only interested in sculpture, he was also keen on decorative art, and he defended it's artistic value. He is also considered to have renewed the use of pewter. Like many of the artists of his period, his work has a japonese influence. In his later years he devoted himself to pastel drawings.

Life
1851	Born in Parçay Les Pins, Maine et Loire.
1867-1868	He worked in a workshop making religious sculptures in Tours, then in Angers with the statue-maker Bouriché. .
1871-1873	He enters l'Ecole des Beaux Arts (the School of Fine Art and Architecture) in Angers, and gets a scholarship to study in Paris.
1873-1877	Student under P.J. Cavelier at the Beaux-Arts in Paris
1875	One of his statues, Orphée , is exposed for the first time at the Salon Des Artistes Français.
1878	He leaves l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. -He meets Auguste Rodin on a project at the Trocadéro. -He goes to the United States of America to make money.
1881	He returns to Paris, and forgets about sculpting through lack of orders
1884	He goes back to sculpting as a practitioner in Rodin's workshop, a collaboration that will last until 1914.
1886	He is taken on as an assistant sculptor at the Sèvres factory. He displays the Acis changé en fleuve and Satyre et Nymphe in an exhibition, the government buys Acis in July.
1890	He displays la Mort et le bucheron in an exhibition of the SNBA, it's a success.
1891	He displays la Léda in another SNBA exhibition, the government orders a marble version of la Léda.
1892	He displays five dishes made out of pewter at the SNBA exhibition which marks the start of his decorative art work.
1893	He displays Mes étains (My Pewter Works) , at the SNBA exhibition under decorative arts, and le Printemps
1894	He displays la Misère at the SNBA exhibition, the government orders a version of la Misère in wood.
1895	He displays some decorative works of art at the SNBA exhibition.
1896	A special exposition at the SNBA exhibition gathers thirty pieces of his work, including both sculptures and decorative arts.
1900	In March-April, he takes part in the creation of the Rodin Institute with Rodin and Bourdelle that will close soon afterwards.
1901	His first bust of Rodin
1903	He displays la Femme à l'arc, at the SNBA exhibition, which marks the beginning of his collaboration with the art editor A.A. Hébrard.
1904	He gets an order from the government for the model of a statue, l'Hiver , for the Saint-Cloud park.
1906	Desbois starts to suffer from rheumatisms that will eventually stop him from sculpting.
1907	Starts work on a marble version of l'Hiver .
1908	Finishes l'Hiver and sculpts le Rocher de Sisyphe . In July, he is awarded with the prestigious Officier de la Légion d'honneur medal, as is Rodin in August.
1910	He finishes Rodin's Bust in stone.
1913	He works on la Source ( finished in 1919). In August, the government orders Monument à Valmy 1792 for the Panthéon, he finishes it in 1929.
1916	In August, Jacques Zoubaloff donates many of Jules Desbois sculptures to the Petit Palais.
1917	Rodin dies
1919	In May, the town of Angers orders a Monument aux morts unveiled in 1922. He also works on Morts casquées.
1924	He displays some of his pastel works at the Galérie Hébrard, some of which are bought by Zoubaloff and the government.
1928	He has a serious car accident resulting in him only being able to walk with crutches. The sculptor Paul Moreau Vauthier helps him to manage with his day to day life.
1930	He devotes himself to working with pastel, and only displays his old sculptures.
1935	He displays le Torse de Sisyphe in bronze, ordered by the government, at the SNBA exhibition. He dies the 4 th October, at his home, 89 boulevard Murat in Auteuil, he is buried the 6 th October in the famous Père-Lachaise cemetry in Paris.

Life