Jean Roulland, a way to discover a bronze sculptor of the area

Last sunday, 28 july  i took part to the " Parcours de découverte Jean Roulland". Jean Roulland, french sculptor ( born in 1931) is an important artistic figure in the Calais region and one of the last representative of the Roubaix and Gravelines group ( among them,  Eugène Leroy, whose canvas are so thick and heavy  they look like flat sculptures themselves) .
First of all we visited the very huge exhibition , displayed in the museum of Calais in front of the Richelieu Parc ( because yes we have an other new museum dédicated to the lace industry which made the wealth of Calais in the past (alas, it's almost over today). It's the first time since 1991 , that such a big quantity of his masterpieces are gathered , displayed for the pleasure of the public. We could see bronze sculptures but also a lot of pastels he used to do quickly, as if he was pushed by an urgent need. He began as a stone sculptor but gave up quickly because it was too long for him to see the masterpiece to be birth, so pastels and wax scupture fitted more his kind of frenzy . And wax related in fact to a spécial kind of sculpture, known from ages as the lost wax bronzing process. We could see a lot of bronze sculptures, mutilated bodies , grimacing faces, dried christs hanging from crosses, some would say that everything except perhaps the flying men of the pastels is lugubrious, but we must remember that Jean Roulland's father took part to the first world war and experienced dreadful thing on the batte fields and in the trenches. He  has been influenced also strongly  by his mother who was a believer who had faith in heaven and hell, good, and his contrary evil and so devil too. More simply i would say that like many artists he tried to dig in the stuff that make our humanity, beauty, love and death, and what seems to appeal to him most is death and our decaying bodies at the end,  and why not it'is part of our lives too...
It is not strange that the second part of this little trip about his work leads us to the church of Nouvelle Eglise where 5 of his big masterpieces were displayed . I remember of a very striking christ almost falling from his cross . this masterpiece has been offered for  the bishop palace,  but has been first almost hidden during many years because it was too bothering the way to feature this holy scene.
The last part of the visit was not the least interesting, we have been allowed to go to Jean Roulland, and his partner's house and visit the master'workshop. Yes because Jean Roulland is not a sculptor like an other, most of them concentrate on the first stage, scuplting the clay or the wax, and give the fragile sculpture  to a foundry to turn it into bronz, whereas Jean Roulland tried to control the whole process from the creating process until the end, from this thin and weak sculpture to the stolid final bronze. This lost wax bronzing process could be understood  thanks to the explanations given by some people who are very close friends of Jean Roulland and who helped him during many years and so know him quite well, as far it is possible to know such a man.
Because infortunately Jean Roulland is no more able to speak about his work himself, we saw him from afar in his whellchair, pushed by his admirable partner Marie. He had a kind of stroke in 2007 who let him disabled, but his look is still piercing, and as he has recovered a little he is sometimes  dreaming he could continue to create, what he has been doing all his  life long...

Hi JeanPierre,

Thank you very much for your words relating your visit.
Reading your text, I would encourage everyone to go discover Jean Roulland's works.

I have Known Roulland for a llong Time thanks to a friend of mine ! Very good post !

thank you for you reading Gérard and Murielle, tomorrow Sunday, trying to make the most of the SNCF and Conseil général du
Pas-de-Calais "TER-VER" operation (I spoke about that two weeks ago ) I will follow Jean Roulland in the "Musée de l"Hospice Comtesse" in Lille. I booked with two friends, one from Calais and and other we'll meet in Lille, the guided tour of the exhibition : "Têtes en terres cuites (1995 -207) et pastels " ... Today if it's no too hot I will probably make a jump (always with "TER-VER", in half an hour from Calais Fréthun we can be in Lille, you can not imagine how "shortened" the distances are with the TGV ) to the last part of the Ernest Pignon exhibition in Lille . If i find time and words I will try to write something about this artist....

Hi Jean-Pierre,

Yes please, go on writing about the exhibition and the artists as well as about locations and events in your beloved region.

Hi jean Pierre hi Gerard
A friend of mine has made a site for Roulland and when i am home in Calais i will write the link. Right now i can't because It is so difficult to get connected Thanks again for writing

I think the site Muriel is talking about may be the following : http://jean.roulland.free.fr/
created by the friends of Jean Roulland in order to promote his work . It's the most extensive site I've found on the topic

Jean Pierre, thank you for this link. Our friend is "association des amis de jean roulland" 's president. http://www.lavoixdunord.fr/region/trois-expos-la-consecration-meritee-de-jean-roulland-jna0b0n1024254

thank you for this link to this article of the newspaper . I think Louis Deledicq, the commissionner of this exhibition will organise in september a visit of the exhibition in Calais, I'll try not to miss it .

As i told it last time, the Jean Roulland exhibition's co-commissionner Jean Deledicq will organise the discovery tour of the 1st of September . When i attended the tour last time, it was with the président of "Les amis de Jean Roulland", C. Evrard, so it was more from a friend's side and point of view, this time it will probably be more from an expert's. Jean Deledicq born in Llile as been one of the first to create an Art center outside Paris at the beginning of decentralization. He is currently Director of the Buffet foundation and consultant for many art galeries. As the number of people in the group which will start from the Museum of Calais head to the Church of Nouvelle- Eglise and end in the workshop of Jean Roulland and her partner themselves, is limited, it is highly recommended to book in advance .

JeanPierreD a écrit: it is highly recommended to book in advance .  

Thank you Jean Pierre for that recommandation !

Hi Jean-Pierre
I have just heard of a book from Bruno Vouters : Jean et Marie Roulland.
Have you read it ?
http://www.cote-dopale.com/articles/jean-roulland-livre-jean-et-marie-de-bruno-vouters

Hello Muriel
Yes i've heard of it , but i didn't read it yet; wait to find it in a library... This book written by the journalist Bruno Vouters tells the story and the fight of Jean Roulland after his stroke, the role of his friend Marie in his recovery is extraordinary. But if you happen to meet Marie herself she will tell you how difficult this fight has been, not only against the disability  but against the medical system itself sometimes locked into statistic data ... He shouldn't have recovered as much and yet he did, not because of medical prognosis , but because of his own will , of his friend so closed to him, because of Love, says B. Vouters,  and perhaps because of some mystery we can not penetrate as Live itself.

Hello everyone
If you want to find more about Jean Roulland in French here is the link
https://www.cafe-polyglotte.com/t2723-jean-roulland#13916