Born on February 2, 1906 in Brignoles, to a father who was a mathematics professor in Lorgues and Victorine Tardieu, a teacher in Brignoles, nothing predestined Victor-Edmond Nicolas to become a sculptor.
Victor studied at the Lorgues college then at the Toulon high school where he obtained a scholarship from the Toulon artists’ society. With his baccalaureate in hand, the young man went to Paris and entered the School of Decorative Arts from where he graduated and after obtaining eight medals. He will then join the Fine Arts to follow the workshop of Paul Landowski, sculptor of Christ from Rio de Janeiro.
Elected president of the Fine Arts section of the General Association of Paris Students in 1928, he was a three-time winner at the Salon of French Artists with honorable mention in 1929, bronze medal in 1933 and silver medal in 1934. In 1930 and 1933, he was also a recipient of the prestigious Prix de Rome for sculpture.
In the meantime, he won the competition for the creation of the plaster bust of Jean Aicard which, cast in bronze, was inaugurated at the Jardin Alexandre 1er in Toulon on November 8, 1931. The monument was destroyed during the Second World War to recover the bronze.
Between sculpture and politics
On July 20, 1933, Victor married Josette Behar, sculptor, graduate of Fine Arts with whom he had a son, Vincent born in 1934. The family went to live on the family property in Montmeyan (Var) where, while working at the quarry , he set up a workshop in the Saint Esprit chapel located above the village. There, he made various busts of personalities and created numerous monuments for the Var and the Alpes-Maritimes.
Then, against all odds, in 1935, he entered politics. He joined the Communist Party, and joined the municipal council of Montmeyan. Then, becoming a member of the committee of the communist section of Barjols, he was named secretary general of the cell. Mobilized in Nice at the start of the war, he returned to Montmeyan after the Armistice.
Although he resigned from the Communist Party following the German-Soviet Pact, he retained his mandate as municipal councilor. He then participated in the actions of local resistance fighters and became president of the local Liberation committee.
Becoming first deputy in May 1945, he took charge of the municipal council of Montmeyan while awaiting the return of the mayor, Clément Denans, prisoner in Germany.
Serving the city of Nice
During this period of mandate, the artist will install scissors, knives, mallets and other adzes. He only picked up his tools again in 1946 when the city of Nice offered him the position of sculptor in the Architecture department.
In 1953, he began drawing and painting with some success. Also in 1956, the Toulon School of Fine Arts offered him a position as a drawing teacher which he held until 1976. Although he left the political environment, he retained sympathies with the French Communist Party throughout his life.
The sculptor died on July 16, 1979 in a road accident in Montmeyan. Today Victor Edmond Nicolas is one of the forgotten children of Brignoles. And yet, in addition to the bust of Raynouard which still sits on Place Saint-Pierre in Brignoles, he has largely left his mark outside his hometown.
Sources: “Nicolas Victor, Edmond” by Jacques Girault, le Maitron biographical dictionary; Michel Dutto president of the association for the Safeguarding of Brignolais Heritage.
A considerable work
Several times graduated and a hard worker, Victor Nicolas has continued to create works that have often won awards such as the plaster bas-relief, a tribute to the Unknown Soldier, the Prix Roux of the Institut de France (1933) or the Prix Chenavard of the National School of Fine Arts for the statue of the Fisherman pulling his net or the First Prize in the national competition for the equestrian statue of Joan of Arc in Nice (1943), etc… other more important achievements which can still be admired today have marked its journey, the Monument dedicated to Raynouard, a white marble bust on the Place Saint-Pierre in Brignoles (1937), the two monumental statues of “La Tragédie” and “La Danse ” of the Jardin Albert 1er, Nice (1947), the same year, the monument dedicated to Emilie Morel in La Martre, that dedicated to the heroes and martyrs of Bessillon in Pontevès (1949), the fresco of the Saint-Maur school in Toulon (1963) without forgetting all the plaster statues and the drawings made for him or to order.
If a posthumous exhibition of his works was organized in Montmeyan in August and September 1981, and the XXIVth Salon des imagiers de Toulon was dedicated to him from December 1981 to January 1982, perhaps it is time to revive this exceptional artist. time for a new exhibition?
