Marcel DAMBOISE (1903-1992) - Lot 224

Marcel DAMBOISE (1903-1992) Albert Camus, 1961-1963 Plaster. 43.5 x 20 x 26 cm Provenance: Artist's studio, by descent Related literature : Jean-Baptiste Auffret, Danielle Damboise, Ève Turbat, Marcel Damboise (1903-1992), exhibition catalog, Paris, Galerie Malaquais, 2008. Marcel Damboise painted this portrait of the writer after his death in a car accident in 1960. In 1932-1935, Albert Camus, a student in his twenties, took an interest in Damboise's work, then a boarder at the Villa Abd el-Tif in Algiers. Camus published inspired reviews of the sculptor's work, the two men met and a strong friendship was born. They shared a knowledge and taste for ancient Greece. To the best of our knowledge, another terracotta proof, also unnumbered, has been preserved in a private collection. This model was also produced in bronze; a copy can be found in the library of the Théâtre de l'Odéon. This is an Emile Godard cast, numbered 0/8, signed Damboise 1962, and purchased from the artist in 1964. Biography: After a brief period at the École des Beaux-Arts in Marseille, Marcel Damboise apprenticed as a stonemason and moved to La Ruche, Paris, in 1926, with his friend the sculptor Louis Dideron. In 1928, he married Yvette Dorignac, daughter of painter Georges Dorignac. He rubbed shoulders with the painter's entourage, exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants and met Paul Cornet, Charles Despiau, Aristide Maillol and Charles Malfray, who became his spiritual masters. During his stay at the Villa Abd-el-Tif in Algeria, between 1932 and 1935, he carried out a number of commissions, including the Fondouk Monument, which came to the attention of Albert Camus, with whom he became close friends. During the war, in France, he created a large female figure for the city of Bordeaux and a high-relief of Saint Marcel for the church in Vitry-sur-Seine. He stayed in Algeria again from 1948 to 1954 and, on his return to Paris, was appointed professor at the École des Beaux-Arts and became a founding member of the Groupe des Neuf.