Paul Sibra (10 September 1889 – 24 March 1951) was a French regionalist painter, painter of religious scenes, landscapes and portraits. Paul Sibra is nicknamed “''le peintre du

Lauragais The Lauragais () is an area of the south-west of France that is south-east of Toulouse. The Lauragais, a former county in the south-west of France, takes its name from the town of Laurac and has a large area. It covers both sides of the Canal d ...

''”, after his native region.

Biography

Paul Sibra was born in 1889 in Castelnaudary in a well of family of fabric shopkeepers. After 4 years of training before and after

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

in the

Académie Julian The Académie Julian () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907) that was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

(his master was Jean-Paul Laurens), Sibra travelled in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

and later in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, creating many travel sketchbooks on the way. Following the Great War, Paul Sibra was part of the general movement called “

return to order The return to order (French: ''retour à l'ordre'') was a European art movement that followed the First World War, rejecting the extreme avant-garde art of the years up to 1918 and taking its inspiration from classical art instead. The movement w ...

”, that rejected the excesses of the avant-garde and encouraged a revival of classicism and realistic painting. Participating to the

Salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon ( ...

’s exhibitions, he spent some years living between Paris and

Castelnaudary Castelnaudary (; oc, Castèlnòu d'Arri) is a commune in the Aude department in the Occitanie region of southern France. It is located in the former province of the Lauragais and famous for cassoulet of which it claims to be the world cap ...

, before he turned back for good to his beloved

, in the Castelnaudary area at the end of the 1920s.
Sibra was close to the ''

félibrige The ''Félibrige'' (; in classical Occitan, in Mistralian spelling, ) is a literary and cultural association founded in 1854 by Frédéric Mistral and other Provençal writers to defend and promote the Occitan language (also called the ) and ...

'' movement and he built his fame portraying defenders of the

occitanian Occitan (; oc, occitan, link=no ), also known as ''lenga d'òc'' (; french: langue d'oc) by its native speakers, and sometimes also referred to as ''Provençal'', is a Romance language spoken in Southern France, Monaco, Italy's Occitan Va ...

culture and language such as poets, writers and actors. During the 1930s, he had some success as a portraitist for military and clergy men. Through the same period, he started to document and paint Lauragais villages and rural landscapes. His masterpiece is a large landscape, with scenes of agricultural work, that can be understood as an allegory of "nurturing earth", alluding to the reputed abundant agricultural production of Lauragais (''The Lauragais'', 1929). Early in his career, Sibra’s ambition of documenting the Lauragais countryside and everyday life led him to create a corpus of thousands of drawings along with notes, compiled in sketchbooks. This methodical survey, even if uncompleted, is an extremely valuable document for our understanding of the Lauragais rural life of mid-twentieth Century, before the definitive mechanization of farming practices.(f
"Dessiner la tradition : Paul Sibra (1889-1951) et le Lauragais"
/ref> Paul Sibra died of a heart attack in 1951 at the age of 62. He left over 1,500 paintings and several thousands of drawings.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sibra, Paul People from Castelnaudary 1889 births 1951 deaths 20th-century French painters 20th-century French male artists French male painters

Biography

See also

Further reading

References