CAILLARD Christian

Christian Caillard was a French painter born on July 26, 1899 in Clichy and died in September 1985. After studying at Collège Rollin, he applied to École Centrale. Mobilized in 1918, the young man served in the artillery, but upon returning to civilian life, he decided to abandon the sciences to devote himself to painting. His uncle Henri Barbusse gave him his first paintbox. In 1921, Caillard entered the Biloul Academy, where he stayed for a few months and met Eugène Dabit, the future author of "Hôtel du Nord," and the painter Georges-André Klein. Then in 1923, Caillard met the painter Loutreuil, who became not only a master but also a friend and guide for the young artist. In 1927, Caillard made his first trip to Morocco. Encouraged by this first experience of being in a different environment, Caillard decided to take a long journey around the world to gather sketches and impressions. He visited Indochina, Bali, Tahiti, and Martinique in succession. He had a daughter during his stay in Tahiti, who remained with his family. He won the Blumental Prize in 1934. He remained faithful to the 9th arrondissement, from 1935 until his death on Clauzel Street in 1985. At 6, rue Clauzel, a stone's throw away from the small shop where Father Tanguy sold colors... or exchanged them for canvases with the greatest artists (Van Gogh, Pissarro, Gauguin, Cézanne, Monet, Renoir, and many others...), Christian Caillard had his painting studio for fifty years. It was there that he worked in Paris and brought back his "harvested" canvases from around the world. Mobilized in 1939, he was taken prisoner in the Vosges in 1940. Released in June 1941, he resumed painting, and from 1945 onwards, he settled in Brittany, where he loved the wild and solitary moors. In 1948, he met Monette Pinat, with whom he had two sons, Vincent and Laurent Caillard, who lived at 61 rue du Pré Saint Gervais, in the 19th arrondissement of Paris. This house housed Loutreuil's studio, who left his paintings and his house when he died in 1925, "to dispose of everything as he sees fit," as he stated in his short testament revealing his trust in Caillard's faithful friendship. While dividing his time between Paris, Saint-Tropez, and Brittany, Caillard made long stays in Morocco, Mexico, Greece, and Spain, where he acquired a house in 1956 in Javea near Alicante. In 1956, he met Chantal de Marans, with whom he had a daughter, Elisabeth. In Vevey, Switzerland, Caillard participated in the 1957 exhibition "Des Peintres de la réalité poétique." After a major retrospective at the Durand-Ruel Gallery in 1963, he resumed his journey around the world. He spent a year in Madagascar in 1964, then returned several times to Morocco in 1966, 1968, and 1970. The Galerie de Paris organized a prestigious solo exhibition for him in 1969. He traveled to Ceylon in 1971. In October 1972, the Galerie des Granges in Geneva presented a major exhibition of Caillard's "fifty years of painting," then he spent six months in Bora-Bora in 1973, traveled to Tunisia in 1974, Bali in 1975, and Mexico in 1976. Upon his return, the Galerie André Weil dedicated a retrospective to him in October 1976. He then traveled to Nepal in 1979. From 1981 to 1985, he divided his time between his Paris studio, his house in Javea, Spain, and the island of Ouessant. In November 1984, he was once again present in Geneva, where the Galerie de la Corraterie - following the exhibitions dedicated to him in 1978/79 and 1981 - presented his recent works. Christian Caillard passed away in Paris in September 1985. The Jean-Pierre Joubert Gallery paid tribute to him in Paris from June 1986, while the city of Menton honored him in April 1987 at the Musée du Palais Carnolès, and after an exhibition at the Künsthaus Bülher gallery in Stuttgart in 1995, the City of Paris dedicated a major retrospective to him in 1997, to honor him as the Painter of the 9th arrondissement.