Jules Damloup, La petite Afrique / Little Africa

view of the garden

this picture from the collection André Escard

as archived by the Lille Art Museum and published on their website

Above depicted sculpture garden doesn't exist anymore at its original location. However, the sculptures have been donated to the French outsider art museum La Fabuloserie, where they are exposed in the museum's large garden.

Life and works

Jules Damloup (December 14, 1898 - August 29,1985) lived in the small community of Broësses, part of the municipality of Pithiviers in the Loiret area, France.

He was a farmer and when retired in 1963 at age 65, he began making sculptures from all kinds of African animals such as the lion and the little elephant pictured below.

this picture and the next one (May 2014) 

courtesy of Raija Kallioinen

The site, named La petite Afrique, also included sculptures of such animals as a monkey, an ostrich, a zebra, a hyena, a dromedary and a pelican.

When Damloup died in 1985, his son Fernand continued the care of the site, until in 1991 he and the other members of the family decided to donate the sculptures to the Fabuloserie, the private outsider art museum in Dicy, France, established in 1983 by Alain Bourbonnais, where these sculptures currently are showpieces.

The sculptures are in a wonderful condition, taking into account that they were made so many years ago.

In general there is not much information available about his art environment in relevant French blogs/websites and other publications. It was therefore very welcome that in 2017 the Lille Art Museum on a new website published the documentations compiled by some French researchers, that currently are managed by the museum.

Documentation

* "La petite Afrique de Jules Damloup" on website Habitants Paysagistes. Cartography des maisons et jardins singulières.
* André Escard, "Jules Damloup (1998-1985)" in:  Bulletin de l'association des amis de François Ozenda, nr 62 (April 1998)

first published May 2014, last revised October 2018

Jules Damloup

La petite Afrique

Broësses (Pithiviers), dept Loiret, region Centre-Val de Loire, France

site not extant anymore, sculptures donated to La Fabuloserie