Henri (Alphonse Séraphin Marie) Gaudier-Brzeska
Born on the 4th October in Saint-Jean-de-Braye. His father was a carpenter. He studied business and because of his linguistic and academic skills won a scholarship in 1806 to study in London and then a second scholarship in 1807 to study at the Merchant Venturers College, Bristol, a work placement in Cardiff and further study in Nuremburg and Munich. In October 1908 he was living in 29 Claude Road, Cardiff, working for Fifoot and Ching, a coal exporting firm based in Mountstuart Square. His employer Mr. Ching said of him:
"Whilst he excellently fulfilled the duties allotted to him, one could easily notice that his mind was not altogether in his work. Art undoubtedly occupied the greater part of it, and in his spare moments he was everlastingly, pencil in hand, sketching some little incident that appealed to him. During the lunch hours he periodically walked across to the docks and brought back with him a small sketch of, perhaps the bow of a boat, or the elevation of a crane or tip, all of which showed genius. I encouraged him in his work because I felt that commerce was not his forte, and that he was bound to leave it at the first chance. In character he was Bohemian, and just a little casual, which was natural, but he was the kind of boy that one would have expected to have lived, if necessary, in a garret while he got on with his life's work as he felt it to be"
Gaudier also drew in the National Museum Wales and in Victoria Park. In 1909 he visited Germany and then Paris. In April 1910 he met Sophie Brzeska whilst he was drawing people in the Bibliothèque Saint-Geneviève. On noticing him she described him as being 'as beautiful as an angel (but one acquainted with sin)' Her mixture of intelligence, flirtation and touchy independence seems to have answered his need for maternal love and intelligent companionship and to have boosted his confidence as an artist. In him, at least to begin with, Brzeska thought she had finally found someone she could safely love, care for and trust to treat her with candour and honesty. In 1911 they moved to London and Gaudier added Sophie Brzeska's surname to his own, posing as her brother. In London he met Epstein and visited him in his studio. Between 1911 and 1913 he worked for a London-based timber importer as a foreign language clerk. One of his models, Edith Bagnold, said of him "He didn't want to know what people were like. He rushed at them, held them, poured his thoughts over them, and when in response, they said ten words his impatience overflowed; he jabbed and wounded and the blood flowed." 1912 He received a commission to make a small sculpture of a wrestler. 1913 he made Torso 1 from Sicillian marble he said "I understand beauty in a way that was better than the Greeks, and history and observations convince me that I am right." The sitter for this sculpture and several others was Nina Hamnett. 1914 Ezra Pound commissioned him to make a sculptural portrait which was entitled Heiratic Head. Gaudier-Brzeska was one of the founders of Vorticism and a signatory of the 1914 manifesto along with Epstein, William Roberts, Edward Wadsworth, David Bomberg and Jessica Dismorr. Gaudier-Brzeska had a complicated relationship with violence, he made a knuckleduster for T. E. Hulme who would slip it onto his hand and thump people on the arm with it to reinforce his philosophical arguments. Gaudier-Brzeska had originally escaped the call up by coming to Britain, to join the French army he risked being arrested as a deserter. However, he was determined to join up and succeded. He continued to sculpt on the front line and continued to write for Blast from the trenches. He was killed on June 5th at Neuville St Vaast, Pas de Calais. Sophie Brzeska was deeply affected by his death, she died in 1925. H. S. 'Jim' Ede acquired her estate from the British Treasury Solicitor in 1927. This included not only her writings but also the estate of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, with many of his works and papers. Ede wrote the biography 'Savage Messiah' detailing the lives of Gaudier-Brzeska and Sophie Brzeska. Henry Stanley Ede was born in Penarth in 1895, he died in1900. He founded Kettle's Yard in Cambridge.
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