Tillac was a French Basque painter, printmaker, sculptor
and illustrator who lived and worked mainly in the Basque Country.
From 1903 to 1910 he lived in New
York and after that in Cuba . He taught drawing in Texas , went
to England and returned to Europe in 1911, settling permanently in Cambo-les-Bains in
1919.
Tillac was passionate about the Iberian world, to the
point of adopting the name Pablo, but also to the Greek and Latin culture. His
erudition is vast, in addition to French and Basque, he spoke Arabic, Greek,
English, Hebrew and Castilian.
He worked in a large variety of techniques: oil,
watercolor, charcoal, pastel, chalk, graphite, printmaking, sculpting. His
subjects are scenes of life, human behaviour, the Basque Country in all its
aspects, sites, monuments, markets, and similar. His works have big ethnographic
value (and depict many, many berets!).
Moreover, he wrote articles and gave ethnographic lectures.
He illustrated many books, including Legends of the Basque Country according to
the tradition of Father Jean Barbier (1930).
Much of his work during his lifetime joined the Basque
Museum of Bayonne . Another part, after his death, returned to Cambo.
Please find hereby the link to the french Editions Atlantica, a book has been printed in his honour :
ReplyDeletehttp://www.atlantica.fr/livre/11325/Pablo_Tillac
Excellent! Thank you very much.
DeleteHi - Would you know details of the first profile image - I came across a painting of the same face in a country market in central France - and your image matches it closely. Any connections to identify the year etc and where that sculpture is located would be great! Regarsd
ReplyDeleteHi Peter,
DeleteI am sorry, but no more details available than the artist's name... However, during the middle of last century images of country folk (typically wearing a beret) were very popular in France, often depicted on wooden tableaus, plates or on table-gongs. Some of the gongs look actually remarkably similar to Tillac's work.