Albert Dubosq
| Albert Dubosq | |
|---|---|
Albert Dubosq, c. 1906. Photograph by Georges Dupont-Émera.
|
|
| Born |
January 18, 1863 Paris |
| Died | November 10, 1940 (aged 77) Lyon |
| Occupation | scenographer (peintre-décorateur) |
| Education | Eugène Carpezat, Jean Daran, Enrico Robecchi, Pierre Zarra |
| Period | Belle Époque |
| Subject | theater |
| Years active | 1890–1925 |
| Spouses | Marie Séverine Tellon (1891), Marie Virginie Pignatel (1901), Marguerite ‘Darvil’ Boulanger (1912) |
| Children | Francis Dubosq (1910–?) |
|
|
|
| Signature |  |
Albert Émile Clément Dubosq (often misspelled 'Duboscq'; 1863–1940) is one of the most prolific Belgian scenographers of the Belle Époque. Between 1890 and 1925 Dubosq decorated 446 theatrical entertainments of virtually every possible kind: ballet, circus, (melo)drama, opera, operetta, pantomime, revue, and vaudeville. Dubosq is furthermore one of the few scenic painters of his generation to have left a substantial sample of his art, namely twenty-one (near-)complete sets. Comprising Europe’s largest holding of historical decors, the hundreds of flats and drops of the ‘Dubosq’ collection have survived at the Schouwburg of Kortrijk since 1920.
Dubosq was born into a family of gilders that had moved from the provinces to Paris around the middle of the nineteenth century. His father, Henri Dubosq, was a native of Le Havre while his mother, Adèle Briet, originatined from Quivières. Apparently showing signs of artistry already in his childhood, Dubosq began to master the secrets of illusionistic set design at the age of thirteen. He apprenticed with four Parisian decorators that were acclaimed in their day: Pierre Zarra, Eugène Carpezat, Jean Daran, and Enrico Robecchi. In keeping with his teachers, all four of whom produced extensive portfolios for several theaters in and outside Paris, Dubosq fostered the ambition to become an independent artist. However, since fin-de-siècle Paris was already saturated with ateliers de décors, Dubosq emigrated to Belgium in June 1887 to establish his own workshop in the country’s flourishing capital, Brussels.
Dubosq first enlarged his experience at the Théâtre de la Monnaie under the supervision of Pierre Devis and Armand Lynen, who had offered him a job. On 3 January 1890, he debuted as a self-employed stage designer at the Théâtre de l’Alcazar, furnishing scenery for Luc Malpertuis and George Garnir’s Ex-Clarmonde, a vaudevillian spoof of Massenet’s opera Esclarmonde (1889). 5 February 1890 saw the premiere of Bruxelles à cheval, an ‘equestrian revue’ (revue équestre) by Malpertuis staged at the Cirque Royal. Bruxelles à cheval was to be the first of Dubosq’s many contributions to the revue, a satirical genre involving spoken dialogues, sung couplets, ballets, and parades. Most frequently performed around the end of the year, the revue enjoyed such a vogue in fin-de-siècle Brussels that many productions ran for more than a hundred performances: Bruxelles fin de siècle (Alcazar, 1891), for instance, was performed 145 times, while Bruxelles Haut-Congo (Alcazar, 1890) toured Belgium. Dubosq gave his imagination free rein in a string of works coupling the locus of the Belgian capital—often invoked in the title—with recent events in politics, culture and technology: Bruxelles électrique (referring to the electrification of the Alcazar, 1892), Bruxelles port de mer (alluding to the capital’s increasing harbor activity, 1893), Bruxelles sans gêne (a parody of Victorien Sardou’s hit Madame Sans-Gêne, Alcazar, 1894), and so on. With a fresh palette and a photographic sense of realism, Dubosq’s revue sets conjured up the new hotspots of Brussels, next to featuring comic fantasies and even Jules Vernian science-fiction.
...
Wikipedia