Hypolite Madelaine

Hypolite Madelaine

1871 – 1966

Madelaine was born in St-Ouen-de ThouBerville, on the 16th of April in 1871. After his scholarship, he devoted himself to drawing and painting and would often travel with his father to the Rouen countryside. To earn a living, Madelaine worked at the French railroad and was selected to draw posters for the company. He got married in 1889 and felt an incredible urge to travel the world. One year later Madelaine left with his wife for South America. His final destination was Argentina. He stayed a year in Cordoba where he developed a passion for fauna and flora, hunting snakes and constituted an exceptional herbarium. Unfortunately, Madelaine became short of funds and then returned to Normandy. The young couple lived in Petit-Couronne and became a neighbor and a friend with Delattre a year later. In 1905, Madelaine exposed six drawings and four watercolors at the Legrips house. Madelaine was an active man and participated in creating the Societe des Artistes Rouennais with Delaunay and Mascart. He often traveled through Burgundy and ended up buying a house in the heart of a little town called Plombiere-les-Dijon so that he could conveniently share his time between Normandy and Burgundy.

In 1906, he exposed “Vieille rue de Rouen” at an exhibition in Rouen and received excellent critics about his work.

In 1910, Hypolite Madelaine used other mediums such as watercolors and pastels. He exposed ten watercolors representing the old city and Rouen’s monuments at the Salon des Artistes Rouennais. Once again Madelaine had a very successful exhibition and entered the Musee des Beaux-Arts de Rouen after being commissioned by the city. Madelaine continued to share his time between Burgundy’s countryside and Normandy. He also spent time in Dumont, Couchaux, Guillaumin Luce, Utrillo, and Vlaminck. He exposed at the Societe Normande de Peinture Moderne along with Dufy.

During World War I Madelaine was on duty for the French Army, but nevertheless, he continued to expose his work at the Legrips house. In 1925, he was appointed director of the Societe des Artistes Rouennais, and then in 1932 became vice-president and continued his presidency until 1953.  Madelaine participated almost every year at the Salon des Artistes Rouennais. He exposed mainly watercolors and pastels. In 1936, he decided to leave the European continent and travel to Tahiti where he resided until December of 1937. He brought back an incredible anthology of memories and stories from his journey where he exposed at the Legrip’s house gallery in 1938. After this exhibit, Madelaine became a teacher at L’ecole des Beaux-Arts and taught until 1948. He had an extraordinary appreciation for his students. Hypolite Madelaine painted to the ripe old age of 85, and ten years later he passed away in his house in Rouen, rue des Faulx.

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