Étival - the home of artists
Musicians - Writers - Poets - Painters - Sculptors
The Buffet family, who inherited the home from the Maréchals, include musicians, writers, poets, painters and sculptors. Some came to Étival for their holidays, while others made a permanent home here.
Laure de Jussieu
(1822-...), writer, and wife of Edouard de Challié, a naval officer and
South Seas explorer; Laure came from a celebrated line of botanists. In
1849 she wrote a remarkable essay on the values of the Republic,
'Essays on Liberty, Equality and Fraternity'. She had two daughters:
Alphonsine de Challié was a painter, who worked in
the atelier of the academician Charles Chaplin and was also a friend of
Berthe Morisot. Alphonsine encouraged her nephew Jean Challié to develop
his artistic talent as a painter. She acquired the former chapelle
d'Annonciation, which was by now a converted barn and after making major
alterations to the property she lived there until her death in 1904.
Laurence de Challié was a pianist, who married Col. Alphée-Gabriel Buffet. They had two children:
the eldest was Gabrièle Buffet who became Gabriele Buffet-Picabia
after her marriage to Francis Picabia. Gabrièle was a musician, art
critic and writer. Her notable published works were Airs Abstraites
(1957) and Rencontres avec Picabia, Apollinaire, Cravan, Duchamp, Arp,
Calder (1977). Gabrièle studied music with Vincent D'Indy at the Schola
Cantorum and with Ferrucio Busoni in Berlin. She knew Stravinsky and
the Italian composer Alberto Savino, and was interested in the musical
experimentations of Luigi Rusolo. She collaborated in the Les Soirées de
Paris and Camera Work and was prominent within the Dada movement. In
January 1909 she married Francis Picabia and inspired him to think of
his paintings as abstract musical scores. Gabriele was vacationing with
her mother, in the family home at Étival; when Picabia, Apollinaire and
Duchamp arrived from Paris.
Jean Buffet-Challié, brother of Gabriele-Buffet
became known as the painter Jean Challié. He studied under Gérôme in the
company of Fernand Léger and worked in Paris, where he shared a studio
with Picasso, Léger and Dufy before moving to Étival, where his
paintings celebrated the beauty of the landscape. His paintings of the
immediate environment are made with genuine concern and his depictions
of family life and the interior of the house convey, at their best, a
sense of profound domestic wellbeing. From 1900 onwards, he successfully
exhibited his work in numerous galleries and salons.
Laurence Buffet Challié was Jean Challié's daughter.
Laurence divided her time between Paris and Etival. She wrote numerous
works on both the Fine and Decorative Arts and has been translated into
several languages. Her last book, published in 2004 was a monograph on
her father Jean Challié in which he is represented as a committed
painter during an artistically passionate and challenging era.
Gabrièlle-Cecile and Marie Picabia, daughters of Gabrièle Buffet and
Francis Picabia both became painters. Gabriel, known as Pancho, the
older brother became a writer. They all visited Étival regularly
Renée-Christine Bailly-Cowell-Picabia was the
daughter of Gabrielle-Cecile Picabia, granddaughter of Gabriele-Buffet
and Francis Picabia; she was a concert pianist and was married in
Étival.
Patrick Bailly-Cowell, Renée-Christine's elder
brother. Patrick was a film director, critic, writer, poet, painter and
performance artist, who worked regularly in Poland in the last twenty
years. It is a country that affected him profoundly; the quality of
light (especially near the Byelorussian frontier) moved him deeply and
became a source of inspiration for him. His powerful and moving
installations are typified by their high seriousness and rigorous
approach. One of these, his 2005 work entitled '0.60'
commemorated the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz
concentration camps. In 2007, this installation along with its catalogue
(published by Areopage) was shown in France in an old library building
that forms part of the Museum at Lons-le Saunier (Jura).
