Académie Colarossi

History

A precursor art school in the same location was the Académie Suisse, founded in 1815. The former Académie Suisse location on the Île de la Cité was bought by Italian sculptor Filippo Colarossi in 1870, and in 1879 it moved to 10 rue de la Grande-Chaumière in the 6th arrondissement.

The Académie was established in the 19th century as an alternative to the government-sanctioned École des Beaux Arts that had, in the eyes of many promising young artists at the time, become far too conservative. Along with its equivalent Académie Julian, and unlike the official École des Beaux Arts, the Colarossi school accepted female students and allowed them to draw from the nude male model.

Around 1879, two salon painters taught the Académie classes, the Japanese-influenced painter Raphaël Collin and French academic-style painter Gustave Courtois. Among its other instructors were the influential French sculptor, Jean Antoine Injalbert and painter Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret. In 1893, the progressive Académie appointed the American artist Wilhelmina Douglas Hawley (1860–1958) as its first female teacher.

In 1922, sculptor Henry Moore attended, although not as a student. Moore took life-drawing classes that were open to the general public, paid for with a book of inexpensive tickets. The evening classes were progressively timed – one hour, then 20 minutes, then five minutes, then one – to develop various drawing skills.

The school closed in the 1930s. Around that time, Madame Colarossi burned the priceless school archives in retaliation for her husband's philandering.

Notable alumni

At Académie Colarossi among the female attendees were german painter Thea Schleusner, Amedeo Modigliani's muse, Jeanne Hébuterne; Scottish Impressionist Bessie MacNicol; Canadian Impressionist Emily Carr; Transatlantic painter-poet Mina Loy, and French sculptor Camille Claudel, who was also a student of Rodin's. Noted also for its classes in life sculpting, the school attracted many foreign students, including a large number from the United States.

Other students

• Ethel Blanchard Collver
• Rose Connor
• Gustave-Claude-Etienne Courtois
• Camilo Egas
• Hester Frood
• Paul Haefliger
• Cornelia Ellis Hildebrandt
• Louis Kahan
• Richard E. Miller
• Georgina Moutray Kyle
• Josephine Muntz Adams
• Maurice Prendergast
• Lucy May Stanton
• Mary K. Trotter
• Mary Jett Franklin
• Clara Westhoff
• George Grosz
• Clara Miller Burd
• Nora Houston

References

References

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2. Ayral-Clause, Odile. (2019-08-09). "Camille Claudel: A Life". Plunkett Lake Press.
3. "Académie Colarossi". Artist Biographies Ltd. Registered in England and Wales.
4. Greet, Michele. (2018). "Transatlantic Encounters: Latin American Artists in Paris Between the Wars". Yale University Press.
5. "Art Term – Académie Colarossi".
6. (1986). "Muskett, Alice Jane (1869–1936)". Australian National University.
7. "Seán O'Sullivan RHA 1906 - 1964, Irish Artist.".
8. Compton, Ann. (1997). "Edward Halliday: Art for Life, 1925-1939". Liverpool University Press.
9. Hughes, Edan Milton. (1986). "Artists in California, 1786-1940". Hughes Publishing Company.
10. "Hester Frood".
11. (1993). "Charles Prendergast". Williams College Museum of Art.
12. https://norahouston.org/about/ About Nora Houston - Nora Houston Foundation