Académie de La Palette


Académie de La Palette, also called Académie La Palette and La Palette,, was a private art school in Paris, France, active between 1888 and 1914, aimed at promoting 'conciliation entre la liberté et le respect de la tradition'.
Early on the Académie de La Palette developed a reputation as a progressive art school. In 1902, with Jacques-Émile Blanche as director of the academy, the concept had been 'any attempt at imitation are now abandoned' . From 1912, when Henri Le Fauconnier and Jean Metzinger took over the direction of the school, the role of the Académie de La Palette as the nexus for the avant-garde at the forefront of the Parisian art scene was secured.

History

From 1900 to 1914 many academies were formed in Paris under the direction of well-known established artists, such as the Académie Matisse, Académie Alexander Archipenko, Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Académie Humbert, Académie Ranson, Académie Russe de Peinture et de Sculpture, Académie Vasilieff, and Académie Vitti. These schools had for competition not only each other but those already established academies that had become popular prior to the 1900s such as Académie de La Palette, Académie Julian, Académie Colarossi and the vast École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts.
According to some sources, the Académie de La Palette was originally located in Montparnasse, Rue de l'Arrivée in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, and may have had as founder the Swiss painter Martha Stettler, linking it to the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, also founded by Stettler. It remains unclear exactly when the academy was founded.
According to another source, the artist Fernand Cormon founded an art school in 1882 by the name of Atelier Cormon, at 10 rue Constance in Paris. In 1888 the academy moved to 104 Boulevard de Clichy in the 18th arrondissement of Paris where it became known as Académie de La Palette. At that location Eugène Carrière became a professor, along with Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. At that time artists such as Santiago Rusiñol studied at La Palette under Henri Gervex.
The art school, subsequently relocated to 18 rue du Val-de-Grâce in the 5th arrondissement of Paris.
Between 1902 and 1911 Jacques-Émile Blanche directed the academy; his bilingualism attracting many English and North American students seeking exposure to the latest avant-garde tendencies. Under his tutelage instruction was offered in both French and English. Teachers during the early years included Lucien Simon, Charles Cottet, Georges Desvallières, who co-founded the Salon d'Automne, Edmond Aman-Jean, Lucien Simon, Charles-François-Prosper Guérin, René François Xavier Prinet and others. According to a notice in the journal La Revue de France et des Pays Français, Mac Neill had been the director of the school.
, 1899, Le Réveil, Le Baiser à la mère , oil on canvas, 94 x 120 cm, Pushkin Museum, Moscow
In 1905 the Russians Sonia Terk, :de:Elisabeth Iwanowna Epstein|Elisabeth Iwanowna Epstein and Marie Vassilieff graduated from this academy. Fellow students at La Palette included Amédée Ozenfant, André Dunoyer de Segonzac and Roger de La Fresnaye.
February 1912 Henri Le Fauconnier was appointed to succeed Jacques-Émile Blanche as chef d'atelier. Le Fauconnier commissioned Jean Metzinger and André Dunoyer de Segonzac as full-time instructors for the morning sessions; Eugène Zak and :fr:Jean Francis Auburtin|Jean Francis Auburtin took over in the afternoon. Dunoyer de Segonzac had from 1907 attended the school and worked part-time together with John Duncan Fergusson.
, 1912-13, Air Man Space
, 1911-12, Trois heures et demie, Half-Past Three Halb vier Uhr, oil on canvas, 195.9 x 144.8 cm, The Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection, 1950, Philadelphia Museum of Art
At this time the academy primarily attracted French, Danish and Russian students. Some of the students known to have attended were Marcel Gromaire and Marc Chagall. Though Chagall's studies at La Palette were intermittent and succinct, it was there that Chagall frequented artists at the forefront of the Parisian avant-garde. His experimentations at the time centered on Fauvist colors and Cubist construction. His instructors were Le Fauconnier and Metzinger.
In the fall of 1912 Liubov Popova and Nadezhda Udaltsova enrolled at La Palette following the advice of Alexandra Exter. According to Udaltsova, Jean Metzinger encouraged the students to the visit galleries and salons where Cubist works were exhibited. The price for a half-day classes was 40 francs per month. Metzinger's students at La Palette'' included :fr:Serge Charchoune|Serge Charchoune, Jessica Dismorr, Nadezhda Udaltsova, Varvara Stepanova and Lyubov Popova.

Case histories

"In November 1912 I went to Paris with Liubov Popova", Udaltsova writes in her memoirs, "Sofia Karentnikova and Vera Petel also travelled with us although they soon returned to Moscow. After looking around, Popova and I began to search for a studio. Our intention had been to work with Matisse but his school was already closed, so we went over to Maurice Denis’s studio. But there we ran into a Red Indian with feathers sitting against a red background and we ran away. Someone then told us about La Palette, the studio of Le Fauconnier. We went there and immediately decided that it was what we wanted… Le Fauconnier, Metzinger and Segonzac used to visit the studio once a week. Le Fauconnier offered pictorial solutions for the canvas while Metzinger spoke of Picasso’s latest accomplishments. That was still the time of classical Cubism without all the vie banale – which first appeared in the form of wallpaper and appliqués in the works of Braque. Le Fauconnier was a ferocious expert and many a student trembled before the canvas. Both Le Fauconnier and Metzinger responded positively to my works and I was so happy when Metzinger told me two weeks later, “Vous avez fait de progrès extraordinaire” . How the students looked at me!. Another entry in Udaltsova’s diary reads: “Liubov Sergeevna understood little of what Le Fauconnier was saying. Everything is broken down into a thousand lines; she has no feel for the plane".

Popova continued working in a Cubist style influenced in particular by Jean Metzinger through 1913.
"There was no question which was my way. True, I was not alone, but in the company of several artists who came from Eastern Europe. I joined the cubists in the Académie La Palette, which became the sanctuary of the new direction in art. On my part I did not want to imitate anyone or anything. This is why I joined the cubists movement."

Directors