French Art Brut draughtsman, born Joseph Ernest Ménétrier in 1853 in Paris, died in 1905 at the Ville-Évrard asylum (Neuilly-sur-Marne).
Life
The son of Parisian bakers, he lost his father at eight and was sent to boarding school. In 1869, at sixteen, he was apprenticed to Tasset, a renowned medal engraver. After his military service he spent four years taking drawing and modelling classes at an art school.
At twenty-three he was committed for “manic excitement” to the Ville-Évrard asylum, on the outskirts of Paris, where he remained until his death. It was there that he took the name Émile Josome Hodinos. He began to draw some ten years after his admission. Most of his drawings have since disappeared.
The work
Hodinos drew countless designs for medals, in graphite and Indian ink, often on both sides of sheets of paper intended for biscuit-making. Lacking tools, he used strips of paper as compasses to calculate the proportions of his figures, which he then outlined to obtain “the effect of a medal”. His figurines, mostly female and with exaggerated anatomy, are accompanied by handwritten comments signed with his pseudonym. With their images, exergues, mottoes and ornaments, these dreamed copies of medals form, according to the abcd collection, “a veritable encyclopaedia, an inventory of vices and virtues”, attentive to anatomy, postures, clothing and household objects.
Exhibitions and collections
- Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne (notably Melpomene and Pieds, jambes, cuisses mouler, 1876-1896); shown in the biennials “Corps” (2017-2018) and “Théâtre” (2019-2020) and in “Art Brut: Frame Work” (2020-2021)
- abcd collection (Bruno Decharme)
- At the gallery: shown in the exhibition “Art Brut” (10 June to 23 July 2022)