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Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 15315, 10 September 1920, Page 3

FRANCE 'DISCOVERS A N3BW RODIN. PARIS, July 15.— Fitting appreciation was paid to-day by the Council of Fine Arts'to the striking genius of Paul D|lde, ';■ better known as- "the Shepherd Sculptor." By a large majority, from a list of two dozen competitors, the council awarded Darde the. National Prize for statuary, • amounting to 10,000 franos (nominally £400). : . ' / This, poor, struggling, and hitherto unknown art student now finds himself well on the road to fame, and officially designated as the - coming glory of French plastic art. .„... All Paris has crowded to the Salon to see the two; specimens of his work, which/ have led ..to his being crowned victor m the' competition for # the National Prize. One represents a collosal faun, carved from a block of stone; the other, is the head of a woman, designated "Eterrielle;: Douleur,"" which Darde has executed m c bronze and marble. ' Bolh stamp him as. an artist of great power and originality. The mantle '> of the great master Rodin seems to havt. fallen on his shoulders. Darde is now about 28. His early life was spent as a shepherd boy amongst the « foothills of the Cevennes 'Mountains.' ' Be" received but litfcie educatiqn, ' and until : his' 18th year he could ' scarcely ■ read or write, but tliis child of nature early felt the artistic call. In the interval of watching his' flocks on the lonely hillsides, he 'gabbled m the mountain mud as a child makes mudpies, moulding crude , representations of the animate objects around him. •