Every Wednesday at the Château du Bois-la-Croix in Pontault-Combault (77340), I teach drawing and painting classes in two two-hour sessions from 4 pm to 8 pm.
The guiding principle is simple: learn to observe in order to learn to create.

All work is done from a model. This demanding approach confronts students with the reality of form: values, colours, light, shadow, movement.
Once mastered, this observational practice becomes the foundation for each student’s personal artistic voice.

The model shown in the photograph has its own story.
It is a painted plaster figure from the estate of Madame Léonie Guillemin, who passed away in 1940 in Saillenard, Bresse. She was the lady’s maid of sculptor Auguste Bartholdi, creator of the Lion of Belfort and the Statue of Liberty.
Her husband, Émile Coulon, served as workshop foreman in Bartholdi’s Paris studio.

The precise origin of this plaster remains unknown. Could it come from Bartholdi’s atelier? Was it a study or a working model?
The mystery endures — and perhaps that is what continues to inspire our students today.