Emile Chambon

Leda and the Swan

1966

Emile Chambon (Emile François Chambon), born January 10, 1905 in Geneva, Switzerland, and died October 28, 1993 in Collonge-Bellerive, Switzerland, was a painter and draftsman from Geneva. He is the son of Emile-Joseph Chambon and Joséphine née Coppier. Three years after Emile, his mother gave birth to a daughter, Julia Mathilde Chambon, who, throughout her life, would assist Emile. In the fall of 1921, he entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Geneva, not without difficulty because the school management considered that his family was not well off enough to allow him to embrace a career as an artist. A first federal scholarship was awarded to him in 1921 and allowed him to stay in Paris where he went with his father. This trip allows him to familiarize himself with the cubist painters. Between 1925 and 1928, he worked with the painter Jean-Louis Gampert, friend of Roger de La Fresnaye; he assists him in his studio, but also for the realization of the decorations of the church of Corsier (Geneva, Switzerland). In 1928 a second federal scholarship was awarded to him, which allowed the young man from Carouge to make a second stay in Paris; he stayed there for about ten weeks, then set off to explore the Louvre Museum where he made numerous copies. But his stay ends more quickly than he had expected, his finances being at their worst; he then leaves behind his friends Chauvet and Van Berchem, with whom he had left, and returns to Geneva. In February 1931, in the continuity of " Raison d'être ", the creation of the " Presence " movement, which wants to be a " action, art and philosophy group " ; Chambon contributed to the review published by the group then directed by Trolliet and Jean Descoullayes. Within the framework of the review, always, it approaches a little more Ferrare which will introduce it near the man of letters Max Jacob in Paris. Ferrare supports Chambon with conviction and is among his first unconditional admirers. The end of the 1930s marks a remarkable progression in the production of paintings by Emile Chambon, the latter going almost to double it compared to the beginning of the decade, and this rate will not run out of steam before the end of the 1960s. .......