Already internationally acclaimed by critics, Marceau Constantin is today lauded by the town of his birth, Saint Christol, which has devoted a museum to him.
In a modern building, the museum present visitors with a wide range of fine arts disciplines stretching over seven decades.
You feel as though you're in a gigantic flower, surrounded on all sides by petals in shimmering colours, set with a golden pistil. The ceiling beams recall the veins of a leaf. The building's structure provides an analogy of the framework, which embraces the diversity of the techniques exhibited: painting, drawing, ink, gold-covered ceramic, illustration...
Marceau Constantin puts forward his own vision of art and develops the different techniques with which he works, without forgetting the materials used.
Constantin Marceau in front of the workshop of André Lhote
Constantin Marceau painting in Provence
Constantin Marceau's paintings
Constantin Marceau in the workshop of André Lhote - Some sketches by the waterside
Constantin Marceau's paintings
Exhibition at the Constantin Marceau's museum
Marceau Constantin, the artist
Coming from a family of Greek immigrants, son of the village baker, who was also the mayor of St Christol (Vaucluse), Marceau Constantin was born in 1918 in the bedroom above the bakery. He suffered from frail health up until adolescence.
Having lost his parents at a young age, it was his brother Kléber and sister Fernande who brought him up and had him educated.
His first artistic training came from his brother Kléber who, struck by Marceau's innate ardour for drawing (to which many drawings can attest), took him under his wing, gave him lots of advice, introduced him to colour. He presented him to the renowned artists of the region, Eugène Martel and the Ambrogiani brothers.
Marceau Constantin innovated a genre in geometrization by following a special technique which draws from both the geometer and the architect. There is a calculated disposition of the many planes, of the different and expressive lighting, giving life to the subjects.
Doctor, art critic François Grech
At the age of 20, Marceau Constantin settled in Paris and perfected himself in the fine arts. Always avid to learn, conscious of the fact that the study of drawing is primordial for approaching painting, Marceau Constantin enrolled in the school at 80 Boulevard Montparnasse.
The Director welcomed him and showed him around the different drawing classes. Here, there were plaster models, there, the students' drawings. Marceau stopped, impressed by a drawing hanging on the wall. The Director told him that the drawing was the result of tens years of work. Then and there, Marceau Constantin made the decision to take the courses, attending them diligently. For ten years, he studied drawing with Auclair and Lesbounit.
At the same time, he enrolled in painting classes led by a reputable Master, André Lhote. Marceau learned “the trade”; in his paintings we can see the qualities of a methodic and masterful order, his design is clear, elaborated, sometimes painstaking. He adds to it that which gives it its personal originality, that acute sense of the harmony of shapes, lines and colours.
Marceau Constantin does not limit himself to just one form of artistic expression. We can cite in particular the gold work on ceramic, the serigraphy, the illustrations... as well as a whole range of seriously learned and acquired techniques (pencil, ink, gouache, oil paint, pastel, inclusion...). He also practiced sculpture with Zadkine.
This multivalent artist likes treating all subjects and works unceasingly.
In 1981, Marceau Constantin left the capital to return to Provence and the village of his birth, where he still lives today.
Musée Marceau Constantin - Le cours - 84390 Saint-Christol
+33 (0)6 84 37 96 76
http://www.musee-marceau-constantin.comWhere to sleep?
