Abbé Fouré, Les rochers sculptés/The sculptured rocks

postcard, my collection

Located in Rothéneuf, on the coastal road that runs from St. Malo to Cancalé in Brittany, France, this site is a well known classic.

The environment was created by Adolphe-Julien Fouré (1839-1910), who was a priest and generally is known as Abbé Fouré.

Life and works

Adolphe-Julien Fouré was born in Saint-Thual. As a young man he studied at some seminaries and he was ordained in 1863. He worked as a priest in a number of communities in Brittany and was the rector of Paimpont for some time.

In his early fifties he became deaf, then he also got a stroke and had a paralysis of speech.

He decided that he could no longer fulfill his clerical duties and. retired as a priest.

In october 1893 he settled himself in a simple cabin, that he rented in the small communiy of Rothéneuf, on the north coast of Brittany, not far from St Malo.

He lived a solitary life and he became known as the hermit of Rothéneuf. But he also got fame because of his sculptures.

Nowadays the abbé is mostly known because of the three hundred or so sculptures he made in the rocks along the coast at Rothéneuf, but he also has made sculptures in wood.

postcard, my collection

These wooden sculptures were positioned in and around the small cabin where he lived. This caban became kind of a museum that was visited by many people. Abbé Fouré would be present at the premises, selling postcards that had been made of him and his creations.

The sculptures he made, were based upon folkloristic, religious and historical themes, for example the Virgin Mary with nations at her feet, or impersonations of all kind of people related to the past of Brittany (amongst whom, but not exclusively, a family that in the 16th century happened to live in that area and had a reputation of banditism and piratism).

signature of the Abbé on a postcard, my collection
it shows he used to write his name as Fouré, 
although his original family name was Foueré

Abbé Fouré continued his creative work untill his death on february 10, 1910.

Auction of the Abbè's belongings

After he died, his belongings were auctioned. The furniture was bought by different people and some of this furniture nowadays is available in art galleries. The wooden sculptures did not attract so much interest. Most of them were bought en bloc by the owner of the cabin, with the purpose to let them stay in situ.

Fouré in front of his cabin

However, the cabin/museum has disappeared, and so have all wooden sculptures*. It is probable that this has happened in the period during world war II when the french northwest coast was a military zone to prevent an allied invasion, the civilian population being deplaced.

The statues in the rocks are still there, but the site hasn't a protected status and the creations gradually are becoming affected by the weather and the visitors.

Livre d'or

The Abbé kept kind of a guest book in which visitors or he himself could place texts and/or drawings. This Livre d'or (golden book) has been donated by the family to the Association of friends of the oeuvre of Abbé Fouré.

Here is a picture from the book, from a series that has been made available by the Association to be published on the weblog of Sophie Lepetit:

More pictures on the weblog lesgrigrisdesophie of February 4, 2012.

Some more documentation and more pictures
* In 1919 in St Malo a brochure was published, written by Noguette (=Eugène Herpin, 1850-1942), entitled la Vie de l'Ermite de Rothéneuf. Recently this doucment was republished on the weblog Poignard Subtil by Bruno Montpied. In my opinion this text is so charming, that I made a translation into english and published it in my collection of texts on outsider environments.
* Another interesting document is the re-publication (febr 2010) of the Guide du Musée, published in 1919, describing the wooden sculptures. This new edition has an introduction by Bruno Montpied and is illustrated with items from the author's collection of rather rare old postcards that show these sculptures. The document is published in the very first edition of the new french art periodical l'Or aux 13 îles
* A professional movie has been made by Frédéric Daudier, l'Homme de granit (2002, 52 min, Arcanae Productions (can be ordered on DVD). Here is the trailer:

 

* Some very nice panoramic postcards on Jean-Michel Chesné's weblog (19-1-2011)  These pictures can be enlarged and  give a good impreesion of  the vastness of the site.
* More pictures on Flickr, the abbé Fouré group pool 

Expositions

* Life and work of Abbé Fouré, Les forges de Paimpont, febr/march 2012 (organised by the Association of friends of the oeuvre of Abbé Fouré)
* This exposition will be continued in the Chapel of St Vincent in the normandic community of Saint Coulomb, east of Saint Malo

The exposition can be visited from April 8 till June 30, 2012, wednesday-sunday 14-18 hrs.

_______________________________
 *in december 2010 it became public that an inhabitant of St. Malo owns a wooden sculpure made by Abbé Fouré, a present to her mother (see Jean/Michel Chesné's weblog, 19-1-2011)

Adolphe-Julien Fouré
Les rochers sculptés
Rothéneuf
34500 Saint Malo, Brittany, FR

open for the public

Abbé Fouré weergeven op een grotere kaart