Seated Nude - Paul BELMONDO (1898-1982)

BELMONDO Paul 1898-1982

Sculptor of monuments, statues, groups, nudes, busts, medal sculptor, watercolorist, draftsman.

He began his career at a very young age in Paris, at the Salon des Artistes Français, where he won a second medal; he then exhibited at the Salon des Tuileries and the Salon d'Automne and received the Blumenthal Prize in 1926, as well as the Grand Prix Artistique de l'Afrique du Nord.

In 1929, he received a scholarship from the Algerian government to continue his studies in Paris. He was then a student at the École des Beaux-Arts and a pupil of Jean Boucher. It was at this time that Charles Despiau became interested in a bust he was working on.

Belmondo became his student and soon his friend. Despiau, he said, taught him the craft and tradition of his master Rodin.
In 1939, he became a member of the Salon d'Automne and was then mobilized again. In 1942, he became a member of the Salon des Tuileries committee.

In 1952, he was appointed professor at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he taught until 1969. In 1954, he received the Legion of Honor. In 1956, he was awarded the Grand Prix des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris

Paul Belmondo enjoyed a career crowned with awards. Remaining indifferent to the aesthetic changes of the century, an excellent and honest practitioner, his art was nourished by classical tradition, to which he added a delicate sense of grace.