Propriété de Calder
MonumentHidden Treasure
Propriété de Calder, located in Saché (Indre-et-Loire), is a modern edifice built in the 19th-20th centuries. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Period
- Modern (19th-20th century)
- Location
- Saché, Indre-et-Loire, Centre-Val de Loire
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.2612, 0.5368
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00132564
In the heart of the Touraine region, Alexander Calder's studio and home in Saché bear witness to the unique relationship between the artist and light: generous glass roofs, a platform for displaying his stabiles, raw creation amidst the vines.
© Wikimedia Commons
History
A few kilometres from Tours, in the village of Saché, which Balzac also chose as a refuge, another giant of world art has left his mark on the Touraine landscape. Alexander Calder, the American sculptor who invented the mobile and the stabile, took up residence here in 1953, attracted by the gentle light of the Loire and the tranquil generosity of the Indre-et-Loirienne countryside. What we visit today is not a reconstructed museum, but an authentic place of life and creation, left in the state in which the artist conceived it and lived in it. The studio, built in 1962, is immediately striking for its functional ambition: a vast rectangular room of 300 square metres, flooded with light thanks to large skylights and generous round-headed French windows. It was here that Calder designed and assembled his monumental sculptures. In front of the building, a paved platform acted as an open-air stage, allowing the artist to gauge the effect of his stabiles in real space, under the changing natural light of the seasons. The house, built in 1969 a stone's throw from the studio, forms a coherent and intimate whole. Designed to meet the needs of an artist at the height of his creative maturity, it combines simple volumes with quality of life. The whole site exudes that singular alliance between America and deepest France that Calder embodied so well: formal audacity and roots in the land. Today, the studio has found a second life as an international artists' residence, welcoming artists from all over the world under the aegis of the DRAC and the Centre national des Arts plastiques. This new vocation continues the spirit of a place born for creation and exchange, and makes the Calder estate in Saché a living crossroads between heritage and contemporary art. For visitors to the site, it's like entering the daily life of a genius: you can still imagine the mobiles balancing in the draught of the glass windows, the stabiles placed on the platform like signs on the grass. A discreet place of pilgrimage for lovers of modern art, and an invitation to take a fresh look at the Loire landscape.
Architecture
The Calder building complex in Saché comprises two distinct but complementary entities, both representative of functional architecture serving artistic creation in the third quarter of the twentieth century. The studio, built in 1962 under the direction of Jean Davidson, has a strict rectangular floor plan of around 300 square metres. Its façade is punctuated by wide French windows with semi-circular arches - a discreet borrowing from classical architectural vocabulary - and zenithal skylights that flood the space with diffuse natural light, essential for working with colour and volume. In front of the building, a paved platform acts as an outdoor podium for the temporary display of the stabilisers, a rare feature that is truly designed as a sculptural work tool. The house built in 1969 by architect Jean-Claude Drouin has a more domestic feel, rooted in the conventions of modernised rural housing at the time. Local materials - probably the white rendering and flat tiles characteristic of Touraine - are combined with generous openings inherited from the functionalist vocabulary. The entire estate is set away from the market town of Saché, in an open countryside environment that reinforced the sense of space and freedom so dear to Calder. The relationship between studio and home, between working space and living space, reflects the philosophy of an artist for whom creation and daily life were inseparable.
Related Figures
Alexander Calder (1898-1976) — sculpteur américain, inventeur du mobile et du stabile, résidant à Saché à partir de 1953Louisa James Calder — épouse d'Alexander Calder, petite-nièce de l'écrivain Henry James, compagne de vie à SachéJean Davidson — gendre d'Alexander Calder, collaborateur pour la conception de l'atelier en 1962Jean-Claude Drouin — architecte tourangeau, concepteur de la maison d'habitation construite en 1969Marcel Duchamp — ami et soutien de Calder dès les années 1930, témoin de son inscription dans la modernité européenneHonoré de Balzac — figure tutélaire de Saché, dont la présence littéraire avait en partie attiré Calder vers ce village
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Propriété de Calder located?
Propriété de Calder is located in Saché, Indre-et-Loire department, Centre-Val de Loire region, France.
When was Propriété de Calder built?
Propriété de Calder dates back to a period built in the modern era (19th-20th century).
Is Propriété de Calder open to visitors?
Propriété de Calder is currently closed to visitors.