An eventful childhood…
Joseph Gaston-Lagorre, from the département of Ariège, and Marie Redonnet, from Haute-Garonne, married in New York in 1911, having emigrated, like so many others, from the valleys of Seix, Aulus and Ercé, hoping to find over there, in what appeared to be a new Eldorado, a better life than in poverty-stricken Ariège.
René was born in New York in 1913.
Soon after, Joseph, who worked as a cook at Claridges, on Broadway, was sent into action in the First World War. The family returned to the heart of the Ariège, to the village of Seix, where René went to school.
He told the tale that, occasionally, when watching over the sheep as was customary for the village children, he would draw on pieces of slate taken here and there from barn roofs in the summer pastures. His elementary school teacher, Jules Palmade, having an artistic streak himself, quickly spotted René’s genuine talent and actively encouraged him to continue down this route, even promising to pay back any financial aid René obtained, if he was unsuccessful.
During his Parisian studies, René met Denise Romanini-Aragon, a very pretty young woman destined to become a talented painter and sculptress (art Lorrain). They both studied at the Beaux-Arts under the same master, Victor PROUVE, who valued them equally. At this time, Romanini-Aragon would often visit Seix to meet up with René, and painted a number of portraits, notably that of her friend Louis Lauga, a notaire’s son, and also of Marie, René’s mother.
Adolescence and the artist’s life at Toulouse then Paris
The young painter went to the Beaux-Arts (art school) in Toulouse. At first it was difficult, or so he later confided to his friend Louis Carsalade. I got by as best I could. I was variously a house painter, a newspaper seller outside Montabiau station, or a window-dresser painting backdrops for shop windows.
At this time he made the discovery of a number of galleries: Ingrès at Montauban, Goya at Castres, and Toulouse-Lautrec at Albi.
He quickly became an outstanding student. As early as 1932 he won first prize for expression with a representation of a male torso.
In 1933 he won the Prix Maury, with a subject both Biblical and Hugoesque, The Flight of Cain (La Fuite de Cain). In 1934 he completed a picture, Shepherds’ Rest (Le repos des bergers), which gained him Le Petit Prix Municipal de la peinture de la ville de Toulouse. In 1935 he attained le Grand Prix Municipal with a canvas entitled Bathing (la Baignade), and, thanks to the grant he received in recognition of his work, he was able to enrol for the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts (National Art College) in Paris.
That same summer, the painter travelled around Spain, where he discovered the treasures in the Prado, Madrid.
Very taken by the paintings of Goya, El Greco and Velasquez, he was equally impressed by the ceiling, painted by Tiepolo, at the royal palace.
Next the artist decided to visit the small town of Toledo, which was nearby. He was taken by the location and the architecture of the town, layered on the hillside overlooking the River Tagus. Fascinated by El Greco’s masterpiece, hidden away in a little church nestled in the heart of the old town, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, the painter would often return to Toledo and this town became one of the major inspirations for his future work. As with the paintings of Montségur, you can see in his interpretations of Toledo the changeover from figurative to abstract.
On his return to Paris René Gaston-Lagorre studied under Lucien SIMON, and SABBATTE. He perfected his knowledge of the grand masters and completed his first works inspired by contemporary artists, as well as earlier artistic movements. At this time, he declared, Already saturated with the need to reproduce what was reflected inside my head, I lived for my art, rather than making a living from it. .
When he left the Beaux-Arts school, commissions followed one after another and made a name for the young artist. At the age of 22 he decorated the church of St Laurent sur Save with a fresco of 12 x 8 metres, quite a feat! This attainment made a lasting impression at the beginning of his career. The fresco was classified as an historic monument in 2001, during the artist’s lifetime; and there followed further commissions for the town halls at L’Isle-en-Dodon and Boussens.
An early career interrupted by war
In the 1930s, Lagorre had made the acquaintance of a wealthy lady from L’Isle-en-Dodon, Madame Benqué, who was enthusiastic about his paintings. On vacation, 1937/38 it was this very same lady who introduced him to the Abbot Carrère. The Abbot proposed that Lagorre should undertake a large fresco depicting the martyrdom of St Laurent. World War Two interrupted work in progress, as the painter was mobilised and sent to North Africa, where he remained until the armistice was signed in June 1940. The War was a disruption for me, wrote Lagorre.
Paintings, religious and secular
On his return to St Laurent sur Save, the artist got back to work and completed the huge picture the Abbot had commissioned, in the space of just 2 months. It was installed on the 12th November, 1940.
Abbot Carrère was so enthusiastic that he then entrusted the decoration of the entire church to the young artist. The painter asked for nothing more than the cost of materials and his lodging, but the execution of this accumulated work (the side chapels, the choir, and the sublime Way of the Cross) guaranteed him a solid reputation.
At the beginning of 1944, Joseph Dauban granted the painter the princely sum of 225000 francs to depict the four seasons on the walls of the large assembly room at the town hall, Isle-en-Dodon. Lagorre completed 5 large tableaux, which can still be admired there today.
After The War, he painted a further two pictures for the same commune, one representing the tragic fate of resistance fighters at Meilhan, the other symbolising the victorious French Republic. They can still be found on the walls of the chamber bearing Lagorre’s name at the L’Isle-en-Dodon Town Hall,
Public commissions soon established his reputation.
The wedding chamber at Boussens Town Hall was decorated with highly original tableaux by René Gaston Lagorre, evoking The Glorious Thirties, and he also painted scenes praising the history of aviation for the Town Hall at Colomiers.
In 1946 the magnificent portrait of Cardinal Saliège was completed; then in 1953 he donated the 4 large tableaux that now adorn the baptismal fonts of the church of St-Etienne, Seix. In the middle of all this, he created three Ways of the Cross (St-Laurent, the hospital at Pamiers, and Bonnac church ).
In the 1950’s Lagorre moved into no. 44 avenue Duranton in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, where he had already established a studio. He began to exhibit in various Parisian galleries, and there was one in particular – the Galerie Charley Chevalier, later known as the Galerie Weiller, on the rue Gît-le-Coeur in the 6th arrondissement – which regularly displayed his work and to which he remained faithful for the rest of his life.
The painter was quite at ease dividing his time between Paris and his regular summer visits to Seix in the Ariège, a ‘compartmentalised’ arrangement which left most of his Ariège friends in the dark about his life in Paris. The capital at that time was even more a hub for art, culture, and major exhibitions, than it is today, and our painter was a frequent visitor to the major museums such as the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay. He spent many long hours admiring art works in the capital’s plethora of small galleries. A love for opera saw him in the audience at the Opéra Garnier as often as he was able.
Lagorre bought a house on the Côte d’Azur which he would frequently visit in the autumn, drawn by the sunny climes and enchanted by its appeal to the numerous great artists who had made it their home – Bonnard, Matisse, Picasso to name but a few. He also continued to travel widely, with regular visits to Spain, and sometimes to countries further afield such as Morocco, Switzerland and Italy.
Whilst based in Paris he made the most of his proximity to Normandy, following in the footsteps of the Impressionists and painting, for instance, the cliffs at Etretat, the port of Honfleur, and the lazy meanders of the river Seine at Andelys with its silent passage of black barges.
On his return to the capital he would work in the early morning and late into the evening, always with the same dedication, and he began to move in contemporary art circles. For four consecutive years, 1972-1975, he was to exhibit at the avant-garde Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, and from 1987 he contributed regularly to exhibitions in Paris and in Washington, U.S.A.
None of which is to say that he shied away from ‘society’. He was a frequent guest at official functions, selling his work to prestigious buyers such as King Hassan 11 of Morocco, and to the French state. He was known for his kindness and conviviality at more intimate gatherings with friends of Ariège origin, such as the family of Josette Vidal where he would frequently dine of an evening.
The figure ‘Z’ which appeared in his work towards the end of the 1960’s was to become a leitmotiv for the painter, who turned more and more towards the abstract from the early 1970’s. It was a sort of response to a call, an inner voice which became more and more urgent. I didn’t go looking for a particular way forward, but simply followed a path which appealed to me. Like a flash of lightning the Z for me is an image of life, its brevity and its beauty. The flash of the Z represents the transient.
From now on the painter’s renown was such that he made a comfortable living from his art. Throughout his life he had given himself up to his passion and had achieved the difficult prize of that passion sustaining him.
On 20 February 2004 René Gaston Lagorre died in Paris at the age of 91, his work acclaimed in France and the U.S.A alike. He was cremated in Tarbes and his ashes repose in the cemetery at Seix.