« I believe in the unlimited possibilities of glass », wrote Max Ingrand, who spent his life in its light and shadows. First by admiring the stained glass windows of Notre-Dame in Bressuire, his hometown in Deux-Sèvres. Those from Chartres (Eure-et-Loir), where he was a high school student, then did his eye. Born in 1908, he arrived in the effervescent era of the 1920s. After studying at the Beaux-arts in Paris and the École nationale supérieure des artsdécoratifs, he was trained by Jacques Grüber, a great glassmaker of the intervening years. wars.
Make the light dance
Max Ingrand opened his own workshop in 1931. He experimented in all directions – such as with these tests of placing acid on glass plates, from a few minutes to several days. He masters the technique of grisaille on stained glass, removal of material, and the association of often very bright colors. Its line knows how to be supple and round, like in the glass plates of Seaside scene (1936) presented at the Bressuire museum.
This piece combines advanced techniques of sandblasting, engraving and the addition of silver and gold. It was undoubtedly a sample intended to attract a wealthy South American clientele. The Bocage community was able to acquire it at an auction.
Max Ingrand created non-figurative stained glass windows for the Saint-Gatien cathedral in Tours (Indre-et-Loire).
© (Photo NR, Julien Pruvost)
The establishment also makes room for Paule Ingrand, his first wife who graduated from Decorative Arts. In the 1930s, they designed the decorations for the swimming pool of the liner France, the decoration of the Sainte-Agnès church in Maisons-Alfort and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. “ His wife was very important in his workexplains Morgane Turlik, cultural mediator at the museum. They created a lot together. When they separated after the war, she continued her personal work. »
One of Max Ingrand's stained glass windows presented at the Bressuire museum (Deux-Sèvres). He respects the technique of the Middle Ages.
© (Photo NR, Agnès Aurousseau)
With the 39-45 divide, no more carelessness. He remained a prisoner in a camp in Germany for five years. Max Ingrand produces differently: the times are darker and his motifs more tortured. He devotes a lot of attention to stained glass windows destroyed by bombing.
THE DATE
2007: this is the year when the Bressuire museum acquired a piece by Max Ingrand for the first time. “ We buy them every yearexplains Stéphanie Pineau-Coulon, director of the music conservatory and museums at Agglo 2B. The biggest purchase was Michel Durand's studio fund at Orly (Val-de-Marne)in 2018. He was the second in command of Max Ingrand, to whom he had passed the torch. » The museum thus owns a lamp produced by Fontana Arte, an Italian design house, of which he was the artistic director. It is still in the catalog.
-Jean-Pierre Blin, curator of Historical Monuments, and specialist in the artist, believes that “ for him, stained glass is not a subgenre of painting, it is an art in itself with its rules, its constraints “. Whose ancestral technique he respects.
Reconnecting with the 1930s, in 1962 Max Ingrand created a unique monumental piece for the Saint-Gobain headquarters in Neuilly (Hauts-de-Seine), made of molded glass paste, reworked with acid, with a layer painted with back in a yellow-green color chart. Bressuire explains it.
> Bressuire Museum. Open from 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.: January 19, 22 and 29 then February 1, 2, 5, 12, 15, 16, 26 and 28. Workshops (by reservation) Wednesday February 26 and Friday February 28, then Wednesday March 5 and Friday March 7, at 3:30 p.m.; otherwise, the establishment is closed in March. Reopening on April 2. Free entry. Such. 05.49.74.32.24.
The stained glass windows of the Saint-Hubert chapel at the Château d'Amboise (Indre-et-Loire), made by Max Ingrand in the 1950s, were restored last year.
© (Photo archives NR, Julien Proult)
Stained glass windows created in the region
Faced with the significant need after the Second World War (1), Max Ingrand specialized in the manufacture of stained glass windows to replace those destroyed by bombings – in more than two hundred projects. “ He strives to create real tapestries of lightexplains Morgane Tyrlik, cultural mediator at the Bressuire museum. His style adapts to the demands of his patrons, either in figurative imitation or in abstraction. » He scrupulously reproduced the techniques of the Middle Ages, both in structure and in details.
His stained glass windows can be found in many churches in our region. In his native Deux-Sèvres, he restored those of the chapel of the Château de Thouars. But also in Indre-et-Loire, in the churches of Villandry, Ballan-Miré, Azay-le-Rideau or even in the Saint-Hubert chapel of the Château d'Amboise (recently restored) and that of the Château de Chenonceau. In Tours also, the Psalette, the Saint-Gatien cathedral and the Saint-Julien church were able to receive his luminous works. In Loir-et-Cher, in Blois, he created for the Saint-Calais chapel of the castle, the Saint-Nicolas church and the Saint-Louis cathedral. Finally, in Vienne, we owe him stained glass windows in the Saint-Denis church in Jaunay-Clan.
(1) In 1939-1945, lessons had however been learned from the First World War, with the removal and sheltering of numerous glass roofs – such as the 2,600 m² of stained glass windows in Chartres (Eure-et-Loir), hidden in Dordogne.
