{"id":9342,"date":"2023-10-11T07:10:07","date_gmt":"2023-10-11T07:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abbelecoutre.fr\/en\/?page_id=9342"},"modified":"2024-07-28T07:34:40","modified_gmt":"2024-07-28T07:34:40","slug":"home","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/abbelecoutre.fr\/en\/","title":{"rendered":"Home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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ABB\u00c9 LECOUTRE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Rarely has the expression his church<\/em> been so accurate, for this church is truly his work<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WIRWIGNES CHURCH<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A masterpiece of popular art<\/strong>
A pioneering building in the emergence of naive art in France in the last third of the 19th century<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"L'Annonciation
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Conventional?<\/a><\/h2>
L’Annonciation Fra Angelico<\/figcaption><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Chemin
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Popular?<\/a><\/h2><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Adam<\/a>
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Naive?<\/a><\/h2><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Paul Am\u00e9d\u00e9 Lecoutre<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\"Abb\u00e9<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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He is not a conventional artist<\/strong>
He is not a popular artist
He is not a naive artist<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

He is an artist<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Worthy successor to the priest-builders of the Middle Ages<\/strong>
he spent 43 years of his life enlarging, embellishing and decorating his church<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
The church stands as a glorious monument to human perseverance and devotion to a higher cause
It was in this same spirit our great cathedrals were raised<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
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Colores vitae maiores factae sunt, et vita ipsa maior facta est, quia in ecclesiam eius est<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the priests who restored their churches, Paul Am\u00e9d\u00e9 Lecoutre (1830-1906) \u2013 Abb\u00e9 Lecoutre \u2013 unquestionably has a special place. Rarely has the expression \u00ab his church \u00bb been so accurate, because the church of Saint-Quentin in Wirwignes in the Pas-de-Calais, which he spent 40 years of his life enlarging and decorating, is truly his work.
The church has been praised as \u00ab\u00a0a masterpiece of popular art,\u00a0\u00bb \u00ab\u00a0a pioneering monument in the emergence of naive art in France in the last third of the nineteenth century,\u00a0\u00bb etc. But however flattering they may be for Abb\u00e9 Lecoutre\u2019s art, these qualifiers are reductive and actually minimise its scope and substance. This is what this website sets out to demonstrate.
The presentation of his history, his work and his church is an introduction that precedes a closer (but not exhaustive) look at Abb\u00e9 Lecoutre\u2019s main works (all listed as historic monuments). The presentation is structured in three parts, in which we successively ask whether his art is conventional, popular, naive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Abb\u00e9 Lecoutre – He is an artist<\/div>