René Quillivic

René Quillivic was a painter and sculptor who mainly expressed the Breton culture. His son René (1925-2016) also became an artist. René was the son of a fisherman and trained as a carpenter before studying at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris beginning in 1903. In the next few years he had solo exhibitions in additions to the salons and was able to go to Algiers on a scholarship.

After the World War I, Quillivic created war memorials, using real people as templates, mostly bereaved persons, which he then modified. That is why he was often referred to as the “painter of Breton pain”. He also created nudes and busts of girls in traditional Breton clothes. He mainly worked with granite and bronze, but also made woodcuts and sometimes painted in oils. There are also Celtic influences in his oeuvre. Between the wars he worked as the artistic director of a pottery factory in Quimper. After World War II, he hardly produced any new works. At the 1928 Olympics he participated in both art categories, painting and sculpturing.