Marie-Alain Couturier
Encyclopedia
Père Marie-Alain Couturier, known as Father Couturier (November 15, 1897-February 9, 1954) was a Dominican
friar, designer of stained glass
windows, famous for his modern inspiration of Sacred art
.
, wounded in the foot (1917), and an art student at the Paris Académie de la Grande Chaumière
(1919).
From 1926 onward he studied first at the Dominican High School in Saulchoir, Belgium, later, till 1935, in Rome where his studies were frequently interrupted by illness. In 1930 he became a priest. In 1935 his vocation was confirmed in the Saint Honoré Convent at Paris. He spent the years 1940-1945 overseas in the United States and Canada before becoming involved in a very practical way in some of the greatest artistic adventures of the 20th century: Henri Matisse
and the Vence Chapel
; Le Corbusier
and the Notre Dame du Haut
; the Notre-Dame de Toute Grace du Plateau d'Assy; and Audincourt.
He died of Myastenia gravis in 1954, mourned over by many of the great 20th century artists.
he had been responsible for the first abstract stained glass windows in the church of Le Raincy
built by Auguste Perret
in 1923.
The Austrian priest Otto Mauer http://homepage.univie.ac.at/hartwig.bischof/Wissenschaft/Cout_Ausblicke.htm, at the same time, was working along the same lines with the Austrian Avant-Garde, opening the Galerie nächts St Stephan for the very purpose. Alfred Kubin
and Arnulf Rainer
, among others became great friends of Mauer, just like some of the most outspoken freethinkers such as Fernand Léger
and Henri Matisse
became intimate friends with Father Couturier.
The general idea was that there was no religious denomination for art. "What is more real ? The torments of the figure of Christ or the beautiful expensive necklace you are wearing ?" a priest asked a parishioner who was criticizing the novel way in which Germaine Richier had symbolised the Christ in Agony in the new church at Assy.
And: "But, don't you know I am a Jew ?" Jacques Lipchitz
had asked Father Couturier when commissioned to deliver the sculpture of the Virgin Mary for Assy. "If it does not disturb you, it does not disturb me." had been the answer.
Such was the spirit that led to the so-called great art:
a distinction has to be made between the artisan master-glazier and the designer, the cartoneur, who makes the cardboard maquettes of the artwork. (Special scissors are used on the cardboard that cut away strips corresponding to the soul of the leadstrip
(H -came
) in which the master-glazier assembles the colored glass fragments). Georges Rouault
, Henri Matisse
, Fernand Léger
, Alfred Manessier, Jean Bazaine
, Jean Le Moal are but a few of the master-painters designing for stained glass (cartoneurs) in company with Father Couturier.
Jean Hébert-Stevens, Marguerite Huré, Jean Barillet -again in company with Father Couturier, master-glazier as well as designer- are but some of the artisans whose name will forever be linked to the renewal inspired by Father Couturier.
In 1925 Jean Hébert-Stevens and Pauline Paugniez opened a workshop where glaziers and painters shared projects, inspired by the Ateliers d'Art Sacré initiated by Maurice Denis
(1919). It was Marguerite Huré who signed for the execution of the glasswork designed by Maurice Denis and Pierre (Marie-Alain) Couturier for the church in Le Raincy in 1923. Jean Barrilet, around the same time was responsible for the creation of the workshop "The artisans of the altar".(Danièle Doumont, 2003 -ref below)
One seems to better understand the spiritual appeal of the artisans -of Father Couturiers message- when one concentrates on the symbolism of the cohesive function of the soul in multicolored illumination, a central feature in traditional artwork.
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...
friar, designer of stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
windows, famous for his modern inspiration of Sacred art
Sacred art
Sacred art is imagery intended to uplift the mind to the spiritual. Sacred art involves the ritual and cultic practices and practical and operative aspects of the path of the spiritual realization within the bosom of the tradition in question....
.
Life
Born Pierre Charles Marie Couturier at Montbrison (Loire), a change of name was effected on his entry in a Dominican convent in Amiens (1925). Father Couturier had been a soldier in the Great WarWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, wounded in the foot (1917), and an art student at the Paris Académie de la Grande Chaumière
Académie de la Grande Chaumière
The Académie de la Grande Chaumière is an art school in the VIe arrondissement of Paris, France. The school was founded in 1902 by the Swiss Martha Stettler , who refused to teach the strict academic rules of painting of the École des Beaux-Arts. It opened the way to the "Art Indépendant"...
(1919).
From 1926 onward he studied first at the Dominican High School in Saulchoir, Belgium, later, till 1935, in Rome where his studies were frequently interrupted by illness. In 1930 he became a priest. In 1935 his vocation was confirmed in the Saint Honoré Convent at Paris. He spent the years 1940-1945 overseas in the United States and Canada before becoming involved in a very practical way in some of the greatest artistic adventures of the 20th century: Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter...
and the Vence Chapel
Chapelle du Saint-Marie du Rosaire
The Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence , often referred to as the Matisse Chapel or the Vence Chapel, is a small chapel built for Dominican nuns in the town of Vence on the French Riviera. It was built and decorated between 1949 and 1951 under a plan devised by Henri Matisse...
; Le Corbusier
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier , was a Swiss-born French architect, designer, urbanist, writer and painter, famous for being one of the pioneers of what now is called modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in 1930...
and the Notre Dame du Haut
Notre Dame du Haut
Informally known as "Ronchamp", the chapel of Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp , completed in 1954, is one of the finest examples of the architecture of Franco-Swiss architect Le Corbusier and one of the most important examples of twentieth-century religious architecture.-History:Notre Dame du Haut...
; the Notre-Dame de Toute Grace du Plateau d'Assy; and Audincourt.
He died of Myastenia gravis in 1954, mourned over by many of the great 20th century artists.
Sacred art
From 1936 till 1954 Father Couturier, together with Father Pie-Raymond Régamey, was the chief editor of the review L'Art Sacré that was to become very influential among art critics no longer satisfied with what was considered outdated 19th century church decoration. Father Couturier, who had a thorough practical initiation as an artisan glazier at the Ateliers des Arts Sacrés (1920-1927), was then considering to bring "living" art into the scope of modern church building. With Maurice DenisMaurice Denis
Maurice Denis was a French painter and writer, and a member of the Symbolist and Les Nabis movements. His theories contributed to the foundations of cubism, fauvism, and abstract art.-Childhood and education:...
he had been responsible for the first abstract stained glass windows in the church of Le Raincy
Le Raincy
Le Raincy is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. Le Raincy is a sub-prefecture of the Seine-Saint-Denis department and the seat of the Arrondissement of Le Raincy....
built by Auguste Perret
Auguste Perret
Auguste Perret was a French architect and a world leader and specialist in reinforced concrete construction. In 2005 his post-WWII reconstruction of Le Havre was declared by UNESCO one of the World Heritage Sites....
in 1923.
The Austrian priest Otto Mauer http://homepage.univie.ac.at/hartwig.bischof/Wissenschaft/Cout_Ausblicke.htm, at the same time, was working along the same lines with the Austrian Avant-Garde, opening the Galerie nächts St Stephan for the very purpose. Alfred Kubin
Alfred Kubin
Alfred Leopold Isidor Kubin was an Austrian printmaker, illustrator and occasional writer. Kubin is considered an important representative of Symbolism and Expressionism.-Biography:...
and Arnulf Rainer
Arnulf Rainer
Arnulf Rainer , is an Austrian painter and is internationally renowned for his abstract informal art.In his early years, Rainer was influenced by Surrealism...
, among others became great friends of Mauer, just like some of the most outspoken freethinkers such as Fernand Léger
Fernand Léger
Joseph Fernand Henri Léger was a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of Cubism which he gradually modified into a more figurative, populist style...
and Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter...
became intimate friends with Father Couturier.
The general idea was that there was no religious denomination for art. "What is more real ? The torments of the figure of Christ or the beautiful expensive necklace you are wearing ?" a priest asked a parishioner who was criticizing the novel way in which Germaine Richier had symbolised the Christ in Agony in the new church at Assy.
And: "But, don't you know I am a Jew ?" Jacques Lipchitz
Jacques Lipchitz
Jacques Lipchitz was a Cubist sculptor.Jacques Lipchitz was born Chaim Jacob Lipchitz, son of a building contractor in Druskininkai, Lithuania, then within the Russian Empire...
had asked Father Couturier when commissioned to deliver the sculpture of the Virgin Mary for Assy. "If it does not disturb you, it does not disturb me." had been the answer.
Such was the spirit that led to the so-called great art:
- The stained glass windows of Alfred Manessier for the church of Sainte-Agathe des Bréseux (1948) -the first non figurative designs to be incorporated in an ancient building, Father Couturier himself signing for the window celebrating St Theresa
- The Chapelle du Saint-Marie du RosaireChapelle du Saint-Marie du RosaireThe Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence , often referred to as the Matisse Chapel or the Vence Chapel, is a small chapel built for Dominican nuns in the town of Vence on the French Riviera. It was built and decorated between 1949 and 1951 under a plan devised by Henri Matisse...
by Henri MatisseHenri MatisseHenri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter...
(1949-1951). - The Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut by Le CorbusierLe CorbusierCharles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier , was a Swiss-born French architect, designer, urbanist, writer and painter, famous for being one of the pioneers of what now is called modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in 1930...
(1954) - The Church of Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce du Plateau d'AssyNotre-Dame de Toute Grâce du Plateau d'AssyThe church of Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce du Plateau d'Assy is a Roman Catholic church in France, constructed on the plateau d'Assy between 1937 and 1946. It faces Mont Blanc, and is within the territory of the commune of Passy, in the Haute-Savoie department...
, bringing together Braque, Matisse, Bonnard, Lurçat, Rouault, Léger, Bazaine, Chagall, Berçot, Briançon, Richier... (1938-1949) - The Church of Sacré Cœur d'Audincourt: stained glass by Fernand Léger, mosaic and stained glass by Jean Bazaine, stained glass (crypte) by Jean Le Moal (1955)
- The convent Sainte Marie de La TouretteSainte Marie de La TouretteSainte Marie de La Tourette is a Dominican Order priory in a valley near Lyon, France designed by architects Le Corbusier and Iannis Xenakis and constructed between 1956 and 1960. Le Corbusier's design of the building began in May, 1953 with sketches drawn at Arbresle, France outlining the basic...
at Eveux-sur-l'Arbresle (near LyonLyonLyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
) by Le Corbusier, 1960 - The Rothko ChapelRothko ChapelThe Rothko Chapel is a non-denominational chapel in Houston, Texas founded by John and Dominique de Menil. The interior serves not only as a chapel, but also as a major work of modern art. On its walls are fourteen black but color hued paintings by Mark Rothko...
build celebrating the inspiring talks between Dominique de MenilDominique de MenilDominique de Menil was a French-American art collector, philanthropist, founder of the Menil Collection and an heiress to the Schlumberger Limited oil-equipment fortune...
and Father Couturier.
Stained glass
In the art of stained glassStained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
a distinction has to be made between the artisan master-glazier and the designer, the cartoneur, who makes the cardboard maquettes of the artwork. (Special scissors are used on the cardboard that cut away strips corresponding to the soul of the leadstrip
Lead came and copper foil glasswork
Lead came and copper foil glasswork are the arts and crafts of cutting colored glass and joining the pieces into picturesque designs.The traditional method uses lead came...
(H -came
Came
A came is a divider bar used between small pieces of glass to make a larger glazing panel, sometimes referred to as leaded glass. This process is then referred to as "leading". Cames are mostly made of soft metals such as lead, zinc, copper or brass. They generally have an H-shaped cross section,...
) in which the master-glazier assembles the colored glass fragments). Georges Rouault
Georges Rouault
Georges Henri Rouault[p] was a French Fauvist and Expressionist painter, and printmaker in lithography and etching.-Childhood and education:Rouault was born in Paris into a poor family...
, Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter...
, Fernand Léger
Fernand Léger
Joseph Fernand Henri Léger was a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of Cubism which he gradually modified into a more figurative, populist style...
, Alfred Manessier, Jean Bazaine
Jean René Bazaine
Jean René Bazaine was a French painter, designer of stained glass windows, and writer. He was the great great grandson of the English Court portraitist Sir George Hayter.-Studies:...
, Jean Le Moal are but a few of the master-painters designing for stained glass (cartoneurs) in company with Father Couturier.
Jean Hébert-Stevens, Marguerite Huré, Jean Barillet -again in company with Father Couturier, master-glazier as well as designer- are but some of the artisans whose name will forever be linked to the renewal inspired by Father Couturier.
In 1925 Jean Hébert-Stevens and Pauline Paugniez opened a workshop where glaziers and painters shared projects, inspired by the Ateliers d'Art Sacré initiated by Maurice Denis
Maurice Denis
Maurice Denis was a French painter and writer, and a member of the Symbolist and Les Nabis movements. His theories contributed to the foundations of cubism, fauvism, and abstract art.-Childhood and education:...
(1919). It was Marguerite Huré who signed for the execution of the glasswork designed by Maurice Denis and Pierre (Marie-Alain) Couturier for the church in Le Raincy in 1923. Jean Barrilet, around the same time was responsible for the creation of the workshop "The artisans of the altar".(Danièle Doumont, 2003 -ref below)
One seems to better understand the spiritual appeal of the artisans -of Father Couturiers message- when one concentrates on the symbolism of the cohesive function of the soul in multicolored illumination, a central feature in traditional artwork.
External links
- Sources (German)
- The refutation of anti semitism by Father Couturier
- Time Magazine (1949) on Father Couturier
- Time Magazine (1958) on Lipchitz and Couturier
- The Menil Collection
- Menil Foundation: Couturier Collection at Yale University
- Convent of La Tourette
- Danièle Doumont: The renewal of stained glass in the 20th century (french)
- A look at Assy
- A look at Audincourt
- Jean Barillet (at Audincourt, design Fernand Leger)
- Marguerite Huré/Le Raincy (French)