Watercolor Painting Of A Seated Nude By Paul Belmondo

BELMONDO, Paul 1898–1982

Sculptor of monuments, statues, groups, nudes, and busts; medal sculptor; watercolorist; draftsman.

He began his career at a very young age in Paris at the Salon des Artistes Français, where he was awarded a second medal; he then exhibited at the Salon des Tuileries and the Salon d’Automne and received the Blumenthal Prize in 1926, as well as the Grand Prix Artistique de l’Afrique du Nord.

In 1929, he received a scholarship from the Algerian government to continue his studies in Paris. He was then a student at the École des Beaux-Arts and a pupil of Jean Boucher. It was during this period that Charles Despiau took an interest in a bust he was working on.

Belmondo became his student and soon his friend. Despiau, he said, taught him the craft and tradition of his master, Rodin.
In 1939, he became a member of the Salon d’Automne and was then called up for military service again. In 1942, he became a member of the committee for the Salon des Tuileries.

In 1952, he was appointed professor at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he taught until 1969. In 1954, he was awarded the Legion of Honor. In 1956, he was awarded the Grand Prix des Beaux-Arts of the City of Paris

Paul Belmondo enjoyed a career marked by numerous awards. Unmoved by the aesthetic shifts of the century, an excellent and principled artist, his work drew on classical tradition, to which he added a delicate sense of grace.