Page 42 - Studio International - December 1965

The Original and the Select

Paris Commentary by Alexander Watt

Georges de Boulogne, a comparatively unknown and having always had a considerable interest in ·saints',
very active young sculptor, lives and works in one of because, as he said 'they are usually great eccentrics,
those typical squalid, yet coveted 'impasses' in the lost and of necessity!'
Alesia district of Paris. De Boulogne was returning from America in 1952, and
'Lost' is, however, scarcely a true description, since he met on board ship the Secretary of the Albert Schweitzer
can count among his nearest neighbours such gifted and Foundation, who arranged for a meeting between the
well-known artists as Vieira da Silva, Alberto Gia­ two in Paris. De Boulogne at once told Schweitzer of his
cometti. and Zao-Wou-Ki; it was Giacometti who gave interest in doing this bust, and Schweitzer answered by
him the use of this studio which is full of fascinating saying that de Boulogne should come to Alsace in two
sculptures, including busts of well-known personalities. years time for this purpose, it being Schweitzer's habit to
There is also an array of plaster-casts of hands, stay there every other year for a short rest from the
seemingly inspired by his admiration of Rodin's work. labours of Lambarene.
One of the reasons for my calling on de Boulogne was De Boulogne went to Alsace in August, 1954, and the
the fact that I had heard that he had executed a bust of bust was completed after some thirty hours of sittings
Albert Schweitzer, whose name, of course, was then in throughout the summer. Schweitzer sat for the sculptor
the news because of his recent death. De Boulogne usually three times a day, morning, afternoon and even­
showed me this unique head, which is in bronze and is ing. Sometimes the sittings lasted for two hours, some­
four-times life-size. times for only five minutes, and very often took place in
I asked him how, when and where he had managed to the small church in Gunsbach, where Schweitzer spent
accomplish this most penetrating study of the great man. much of his time playing the organ. De Boulogne says
Maurice Utrillo 1883-1955 He explained that it happened almost by chance. For a that in some mysterious way, the great inner serenity of
Grande Ca1hedrale very long time he had wanted to meet Schweitzer, the man was communicated to him as he watched his
Galerie Rene Dronet
face while playing Bach on the organ. It was obviously
also some kind of relaxation for the doctor, who was at
that time preparing to visit Oslo to receive the Nobel
Prize, and needed this period in which to prepare him­
self for the coming 'ordeal'. Then, too, says de Boulogne,
Schweitzer felt very strongly a great need to help others.
and appeared to gain satisfaction in being able to assist
this unknown young man with his art.
I asked de Boulogne, as I normally do when question­
ing artists, to what extent he depended and relied upon
the necessity of linear expression. He said that he did not
rely on primary drawings, but preferred to use his powers
of observation and memory for optical details in the
characters he was portraying, such as Salvador Dai i. The
original plaster cast of his bust of Dali is in the studio;
the bronze is in the possession of the Knoedler Gallery in
New York, where it is, no doubt, doing much to per­
petrate even further the many myths surrounding this
enigmatic and highly imaginative character for whom
de Boulogne himself has great admiration. This bust was
done in 1961, in Dali's home-town of Port Lligat in
Cadaques. Amongst other prominent contemporary
sculptors whose work he admires are: Lipchitz, Henry
Moore. Max Ernst, and Chattaway.
'If art is a religion, sculpture is my altar, sculpture is my
means of expression·. de Boulogne told me. He claims
to be one of the first to have discovered and worked in
three dimensions 'The Double Image'. According to
de Boulogne this is the faculty of creating an image
which in turn brings about an extraordinary extension of
that same design into another. It is a vision wherein the
dream becomes Hyperlucid, wherein one form under­
goes a sort of transfiguration to become another, a
second reality.
'My Double Image·. he told me, 'represents at once a
work of figurative and classic form, which gives
simultaneously the appearance of another _image !han
that seen at the first moment .. . without any physical
deformation of either vision ... completely different.
one from the other. Scientists call my "Double Image" a
"phenomenon of inhibition" ... a device whereby the
optical senses are, in a way, misled. For the artist, the
"Double Image" is a metamorphosis. a transformation.
It is an effort which creates two entities ... one growing
out of. indeed a very part of. the other ... each essential
to each, neither detracting from nor altering the other'.
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