The Lodève monument does not include the warrior symbols visible everywhere. The artist pays less homage to the homeland than he evokes the suffering caused by war.
As in most French communes, the trauma was great at the end of the 1914-1918 war. To commemorate these thousands of deaths for France, elected officials, sometimes themselves returning from the front, commissioned a monument. In Lodève, it was the mayor Joseph Railhac who commissioned a monument from the sculptor Paul Dardé.
The people of Lodévois will only see the color of it eleven years later: the monument will be inaugurated in 1930, not displaying the usual warrior symbols visible in most French towns and villages. Paul Dardé, born in Olmet in 1888, was mobilized during the Great War. His role as stretcher bearer sends him to collect the bodies of the wounded on the battlefield, a traumatic experience that will mark him for life. Dardé tries to escape and flee the war, which could have led to him being shot for desertion, he will ultimately be interned in a psychiatric ward in Montpellier.
Seven war memorials in Hérault
This self-taught artist with a strong character was saved from madness thanks to his artistic practice: his Grand Faune received the Grand Prix national des arts in 1920 and brought him an international reputation. However, he chose to return to his native region and opened his new workshop in Soubès.
Dardé will create seven memorials to the dead in Hérault, that of Clermont-l’Hérault whose naked woman watching over the lying soldier will cause a scandal, but he also creates those of Soubès, Saint-Maurice-de-Navacelles, Bousquet d ‘Orb and Lunel and one in Aude in Limoux. Monuments which glorify the homeland less than they evoke the suffering and brutality of war.
Paul Dardé, however, experienced financial collapse; all his possessions, including tools, were sold at auction. He died in Lodève in relative poverty in 1963. The Lodève Museum acquired his studio assets and has 2,800 drawings and 567 sculptures, including the Great Faun, superbly displayed. And for those who wish to see his self-portrait, the artist has represented himself (on the right with his back to the work) in the wall which serves as an enclosure for the monumental ensemble.
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