The Académie Colarossi is an art school founded by the Italian sculptor Filippo Colarossi. First located on the Île de la Cité, it moved in the 1870s to 10 rue de la Grande-Chaumière in the VIe arrondissement of Paris, France.
The Académie was established in the 19th century as an alternative to the government-sanctioned École des Beaux Arts that had, in the eyes of many promising young artists at the time, become far too conservative.
Along with its equivalent Académie Julian, and unlike the official École, the Colarossi school accepted female students and allowed them to draw from the nude male model. Among the female attendees are Jeanne Hébuterne, Modigliani's muse, and the woman who would become Rodin's source of inspiration, model, confidante and lover, Camille Claudel. Noted also for its classes in life sculpting, the school attracted many foreign students, including a large number from the United States.
In 1910, the progressive Académie appointed the New Zealand artist Frances Hodgkins (1869-1947) as its first female teacher. Among its other instructions was the influential French sculptor Jean Antoine Injalbert and the Japanese-influenced painter Raphael Collin.
In 1922 sculptor Henry Moore attended, although not as a student. Moore took life-drawing (no instruction) classes here, open to the general public, paid for with a book of inexpensive tickets. The evening classes were progressively timed -- one hour, then 20 minutes, then five minutes, then one -- to develop various drawing skills.
The school closed in the 1930s. In the same years, Madame Colarossi burned the priceless school archives in retaliation for her husband's philandering.
Notable Graduates
Other students
- Louis Kahan
- Gustave Claude Etienne Courtois
- Camilo Egas
- Robert Bachmann
- Heinz Witte-Lenoir
- Clara Westhoff
- Richard E. Miller
- René François-Xavier Prinet
- Thea Schleussner
Sources
- This article incorporates information from the equivalent article on the French Wikipedia.
- Edward Halliday, by Ann Compton
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