UN PEINTRE DE TALENT DANS LA FAMILLE
Our great uncle, the painter Xavier Desparmet-Fitzgerald, who died in 1941, has long been the object of well deserved family admiration (many of his works are exposed in Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux) and the subject of many family tales. 
What I remember from old photos we used to look at in the various family albums (yes, families seem to have made time to fill albums back then), is a man with long face, a large mustache and a neat short beard.
His very good friend Lucien Schnegg, the sculptor and friend of Rodin, made a stunning plaster bust of Xavier before his death in 1909. It sits in the Museum of Bordeaux next to its bronze version.
The favors did not stop there; Schnegg also made not a just a bust but a full length Terra-cotta statue of our great uncle. It is a small statue but a very detailed one none the less, less academic in facture than the bust. He pictured him as quite an imposingly mysterious figure, maybe due to his height and his tall and lean stature, judging from the piece.
au revoir.
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Jeanne,
ReplyDeleteThis is so wonderful and such a treasure.
He was a handsome man and to have that history
of his Artist friends.Schnegg!! Where was
he born. Lets hear more about him.
yvonne
how very exciting to have such talent in the family tree..lovely landscapes..
ReplyDeletebest,
maureen
Heureux d'apprendre que vous avez les statues de mon aïeul Lucien Schnegg. J'ai rencontré Xavière Desparmet-Fitzgérald en 1996 et 1997 chez elle, au pied de la Tour Eiffel... Elle y tenait beaucoup à cette silhouette de son père ! Amitiés... F.Damay
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