Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations Arts & Sciences Spring 5-15-2018 Canonizing Modernism: An Avant-Garde Legacy in France’s Sacred Art Movement, 1937–1958 Heather Renee Read Washington University in St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds Part of the History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons Recommended Citation Read, Heather Renee, "Canonizing Modernism: An Avant-Garde Legacy in France’s Sacred Art Movement, 1937–1958" (2018). Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1569. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds/1569 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Arts & Sciences at Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS Department of Art History and Archaeology Dissertation Examination Committee: John Klein, Chair Elizabeth C. Childs Angela Miller Vincent Sherry William E. Wallace Canonizing Modernism: An Avant-Garde Legacy in France’s Sacred Art Movement, 1937–1958 by Heather Renee Read A dissertation presented to The Graduate School of Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2018 St. Louis, Missouri © 2018, Heather Renee Read Table of Contents List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ iv List of Abbreviations ...................................................................................................................... x Acknowledgments.......................................................................................................................... xi Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ xiv Introduction: Canonizing Modernism ............................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1: Notre-Dame de Toute-Grâce (Phase I), The New Medieval Age ............................... 30 The New Village of Assy .................................................................................................................... 34 Assy’s New Church ............................................................................................................................. 38 Notre-Dame de Toute-Grâce and Alpine Neo-Pagans ........................................................................ 39 Prewar Conservatism ........................................................................................................................... 46 “Modern” Sacred Art in the 1930s ...................................................................................................... 47 Couturier and the New Medieval Age ................................................................................................. 54 “Une Belle Chose” ............................................................................................................................... 59 Notre-Dame de Toute-Grâce Phase II: The Church in Wartime ......................................................... 61 Savoyard Pétanisme ............................................................................................................................. 61 Notre-Dame de Toute-Grâce under Vichy........................................................................................... 64 Bonnard’s Saint Francis de Sales ........................................................................................................ 68 Le futur de la tradition française .......................................................................................................... 76 Jean Bazaine ........................................................................................................................................ 76 Groupe Témoignage ............................................................................................................................ 82 Chapter 2: Notre-Dame de Toute-Grâce, A Vision of Postwar Collectivity .............................. 109 Notre-Dame de Toute-Grâce and the Apocalypse ............................................................................. 112 Resister of the First Hour ................................................................................................................... 115 The Apocalypse of Liberation ........................................................................................................... 120 Jean Lurçat’s Apocalypse .................................................................................................................. 122 L’Art Sacré and Postwar Reconstruction .......................................................................................... 134 L’Art Sacré and Reconstruction ........................................................................................................ 138 Couturier and the École de Paris ....................................................................................................... 141 Lipchitz .............................................................................................................................................. 149 Richier’s Christ .................................................................................................................................. 150 Léger’s Litany .................................................................................................................................... 151 ii Matisse ............................................................................................................................................... 159 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 160 Chapter 3: Henri Matisse, The Accidental Medievalist .............................................................. 174 The Vence Chapel as Église-Musée .................................................................................................. 177 Rayssiguier and the Nouveau Moyen Âge ........................................................................................ 180 Matisse and the Côte d'Azur .............................................................................................................. 188 The Modernist Reimagining of the Côte d'Azur................................................................................ 190 The Instability of Visibility ............................................................................................................... 194 Modernism’s Pope versus Modernism’s Sorcerer ............................................................................. 201 The Vence Chapel as Artistic Sanctuary ........................................................................................... 204 Matisse and the Nouveau Moyen Âge ............................................................................................... 209 Matisse’s “Masterpiece” .................................................................................................................... 216 The Arena Chapel as Model .............................................................................................................. 223 Conclusion: The Vence Chapel as Artistic Eschatology ................................................................... 232 Chapter 4: Pablo Picasso, Modernism’s “Sorcerer” ................................................................... 242 The Temple of War and Peace: An Act of Complicity? .................................................................... 245 The Musée de Vallauris ..................................................................................................................... 246 The Sorcerer’s Apprentice ................................................................................................................. 248 Picasso and the Sacred Art Movement .............................................................................................. 255 Modernism’s Sorcerer ....................................................................................................................... 258 An Act of Sorcery? ............................................................................................................................ 260 Picasso as a “Historic Monument” .................................................................................................... 271 Picasso Discovers Vallauris ............................................................................................................... 278 Sorcery as a Mask .............................................................................................................................. 283 The Performance of Sorcery .............................................................................................................. 284 The Sorcerer Bides his Time ............................................................................................................. 294 Picasso and the Work of Eternity .....................................................................................................