DESPIAU, CHARLES

born Nov. 4, 1874, Mont-de-Marsan, France died Oct. 30, 1946, Paris Paulette, sculpture by Charles Despiau, 1910; in the National Museum of Modern Art, French sculptor who developed a sensitive, classical style akin to that of Aristide Maillol. The nude studies he drew for his sculptures are also highly esteemed. Despiau was an assistant to Auguste Rodin but came to reject Rodin's Romanticism in favour of a return to the simplicity of archaic classical sculpture. Modeling principally in plaster but sometimes working in stone, he completed only one large-scale work, a war memorial (192022) for the town of his birth. Though particularly noted for the sensitive characterizations in his portrait busts, Despiau also executed life-size figures, frequently nude. Among his bronzes are Faunesse (1924), Eve (1925), and Dominique (1926). Assia (1938) is one of his efforts in terra-cotta.