Robert Tatin was a contractor in Laval who bought property in
Cossé-le-Vivien in the 1950's. Then in the 60's and 70's created a museum. Full of references to the world religions, he envisioned it as link between the civilizations of the East and of the West.
We begin with
The Driveway of Giants, is a series of nineteen cement sculptures Tatin dedicated to historical figures, artists, and abstract ideas. Here are a few:
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| Vercingetorix |
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| The verb "to be" |
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| Seurat |
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| Suzanne Valadon & Utrillo |
Then there was the museum:
And inside there were paintings:
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| Jeu Numero un by Robert Tatin, 1972 |
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| Arcane 6 by Robert Tatin, 1971 |
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| Men Du by Robert Tatin, 1960 |
There was also a sculpture garden of other artists work:
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| Starshaman by A. Trossais, 2006 |
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| Le Baiser a la Maitresse du vent by D. Goutelle, 2001 |
And a fountain:
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| La fontaine de la Solidarite by Jean-Yves Leb, 2011-12 |
CLICK HERE FOR SO MUCH MORE.
More Art along the way:
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| Vivien l'Ecossais 1381-1405 by Rayto Rennes |
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| in Craon |
Our next base of operations was in the Loire valley at
Beaumont-en-Veron near the confluence of the Loire and Vienne Rivers. There are lots of dolmens in this area:
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| Dolmen Bagneux |
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| Magdeleine Dolmen |
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| Dolmen La Pagerie |
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| Dolmen de la Fore |
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| Dolmen du la Bajouliere |
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| Neuville |
And the Art was provided by Nature:
Oh yes, and this fountain we found in the neighboring village of
Avione:
On our way to
Limoges, we detoured to the town of
Angouleme. There was supposed to be a sculpture garden there, but it was small and out of reach:
But Angouleme bills itself as “City of Creation,” “the Balcony of the Southwest,” and “Cartoon Capitol.” Lofty titles. We did find evidence of the cartoon claim with a bust of the creator of Tintin – a legendary European cartoon:
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| Georges Rmi dit Herge by Tchang Tchong-jen |
And there were cartoons all over the place. Here are just a few:
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| Memories du XXth Ciel after the orig by Yslaire |
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| Réalité sortie de secours by Marc-Antoine Mathieu |
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| Titeuf after the orig les dessins de Zep |
We stopped at the local F.R.A.C. and saw a rather depressing show about prison life:
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| by David Brognon and Stéphanie Rollin |
And then there was this cryptic message:
The contemporary art center at the Chateau du Rochechouarte was on the way to Limoges as well:
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| Modern Love by Kent Monkman, 2012 |
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| The Symposium by Kent Monkman, 2012. |
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| Rochechouart line by Richard Long, 1990 |
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| Ghost Dance by Julien Dubuisson, 2010 |
And one more sculpture on the way:
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| Muse de Corot in St. Junien |
We began in town with the Musee des Beaux Arts, which had lots to offer. Limoges is very proud of their position in the decorative arts and included this in their displays. The enamels represent the second largest collection after l'Hermitage:
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| Le cours du matin des jeunes filles a l'Ecole national d'art decoratif de Limoges by Auguste Aridas, 1889 |
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| by Francis Chigot after a drawing by Leon Jouhaud, 1908 |
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| (enamel work) |
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| Le jarden sous la mer by Christian Christel, 1982 |
And there was a Renoir that he gave to the city, since this was the place he was born:
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| Portrait of Colona Romano by Auguste Renoir, 1916 |
There were also Berthe Morisots:
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| Les enfants de Gabriel Thomas by Berthe Morisot, 1894 |
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| Portrait de Louise Riesener by Berthe Morisot, 1888 |
And an artist we just learned about, Suzanne Valadon. She was a model for Renoir in Paris, most notably the dancing painting, and others, but she was also a superlative artist in her own right.
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| La Chambre bleue by Suzanne Valadon, 1923 |
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| Roses dans un verre by Suzanne Valadon, 1936 |
There was a room of
Elie Lascaux:
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| Le Phare de la Coubre by Elie Lascaux, 1927 |
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| Les Vignes by Elie Lascaux, 1928 |
There was even a room for artwork by
Suzanne Lalique-Haviland, but I found that her work as a model for the other Laliques to be more interesting:
There was much Art to be seen on the streets of Limoges:
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| macaroons |
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| former meat storage building |
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| some of the 368 tiles around the market building |
The Limoges-Benedictins station opened in 1929, and is very artistic. It has been named the most beautiful in all of Europe:
We traveled east of the city to Eymoutier, the home of Espace Paul
Rebeyrolle. I would rather not give Mr. Rebeyrolle's bio here, but will say that he was always an artist and had great success in Paris and around the world. Eymoutier was his birthplace and the gallery was established in 1989. He died in 2005. Here are some of his works:
.JPG) |
| Planchemouton by Paul Rebeyrolle, 1959 |
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| Le Magistrats I by Paul Rebeyrolle, 1991 |
+by+Paul+Rebeyrolle,+2002.JPG) |
| Adam & Eve (Et Dieu cree la reprssion) by Paul Rebeyrolle, 2002 |
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| Totem by Paul Rebeyrolle, 2002 |
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| Paysage by Paul Rebeyrolle, 1978 |
Then we found our way to Ile de Vassivierre and the Centre international
d'art et du paysage and sculpture park. The island is connected to the mainland by a narrow causeway and we walked across in the rain and immediately began looking for sculptures:
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| Passages Fer by Jean Clareboudt, 1991 |
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| Steinland by Jean-Pierre Uhlen, 1990 |
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| Sans titre by Andy Goldsworth, 1992 |
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| Kimio Tsuchiya |
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| Eternity by Eimio Tsuchiya, 1990 |
Inside the center was an exhibit that didn't really photograph well, except for one piece:
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| Le Barrage, linogravure collective, 2013 |
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art center
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| inside the tower |
That's about it for our trip. We made a couple of stops on the way back to Toulouse, such as Saint Cirq-Lapopie:
And saw a few more sculptures along the way:
But I wanted to leave you with some of the statues of Joan of Arc we found on our trip:
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| Toulouse |
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| Montpazier |
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| Bordeaux |
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| Rennes |
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| Laval |
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| Cossé-le-Vivien |
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| Limoges |
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