The Featured Researcher for January 2024 was Nat Paterson, with a project titled Léopold Chauveau (1870-1940), Monstrous Diversity, and Widening Access
HEI: University of Glasgow, School of Modern Languages and Cultures & School of Humanities
Supervisors: Stephen Forcer (Modern Languages), Rachel Douglas (Modern Languages), Amy Johnstone (Humanities)
(c) Fondation Giacometti, 2023
Léopold Chauveau (1870-1940), Monstrous Diversity, and Widening Access
Research residency
As part of my PhD research into visual artist and writer Léopold Chauveau (1870-1940), I recently returned from the Institut Giacometti, Montparnasse where, after successfully applying to the Institut’s annual competition, I was invited to stay from 23 October to 26 November 2023. I stayed in a dedicated studio space for researchers, while enjoying free access (with private guided tours!) to the Institut’s museum and library, where my profile picture was taken for a dedicated page on their website.
I benefitted from the advice of Hugo Daniel, Director of the École des Modernités research programme. Hugo advised me on my PhD project and we discussed links between my work and that of researchers published in the École’s book series. Having met one of these authors, I plan to apply for publication in the series. The research programme specialises in previously overlooked aspects of art history during Giacometti’s lifetime (1901-65) in Paris and especially Montparnasse, where both Giacometti and Chauveau were based. Hugo arranged for me to present my research to his colleagues at the beginning of my residency, after which I developed excellent relationships with many of them. Thank you to all at the Institute, and to the University of Glasgow’s James Abbot McNeil and Beatrix Whistler Scholarship Fund for help with travel costs.
(c) Fondation Giacometti, 2023
Interviews
Chauveau — subject of a major 2020 Musée d’Orsay exhibition that attracted over 100,000 visitors despite COVID-related closures — is a long-neglected artist who depicts himself with sympathetic ‘monster companions’, while expressing distress and alienation from human society. My thesis examines Chauveau’s revival within the wider context of efforts to dismantle hierarchies in the art world, notably around neurodiversity and mental health. As part of this, I had worked with artists supported by Glasgow disability arts charity Project Ability, four of whom created works inspired by Chauveau. Thanks to Hugo’s links with the prestigious motion design school école de l’image Gobelins, I was able to interview five alumnae who had created short films for the Chauveau exhibition during their studies. My thesis will include a detailed comparison of works by both these groups of artists, drawing on their own perspectives.
Nat delivering a talk at Project Ability (c) Julie Mac Rae, 2023
Archives and new relationships
Thanks to the generosity of Orsay curator and researcher Géraldine Masson, I was able not only to consult documents in the museum and the French national library, but to make repeated visits to the museum’s storerooms, viewing all visual artworks in public collections. I learned about potential future projects and the museum’s commitment to promoting Chauveau despite conservation challenges that prevent most works from being permanently exhibited. It was heartening to discover the enthusiasm for my project of both Géraldine and the museum’s librarian, Helena Patsiamanis, who has requested a copy of my thesis for the library. I also met and remain in regular contact with other people working on Léopold Chauveau, including: his grandson Marc whose donations made the exhibition possible; and Barbara Pillot, a Master’s student at the Sorbonne and the only other PGR working on him.
