Rebeca Matte

Background

Rebeca Matte, born October 29, 1875 in Santiago, Chile, was the only daughter of Rebecca Reyes and Augusto Matte, an ambassador for Chile. Her father would move to Paris and Matte would be educated in Europe.

Education

While living in Santiago, she was educated by her grandmother. In Europe, she first studied in Rome, under Giulio Monteverde. In Paris, she studied at the Julien Academy under Ernest Dubois and Denys Puech.

Career

Her sculptures are in the collection of the Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts, including her sculpture Icarus and Daedalus, which resides outside the museum. Matte was exposed to many intellectuals of Chile at the time, including José Victorino Lastarria, Gabriel Jordan Amunátegui, and Alberto Blest Gana. As a young artist, she found influence in the work of Auguste Rodin.

Lily would die in 1926, this grief causing Matte not to sculpt anymore.

In 1908, the Chilean government commissioned a sculpture for the International Court of Justice at The Hague. The piece, installed in 1914, was called The War.

The Chilean government continued to commission works from Matte and in 1914 she created Heroes of Concepción, located in Santiago. Matte"s daughter, Lily, would be diagnosed with tuberculosis and would die in a sanatorium in the Swiss Alps in 1926.

Matte died, in Paris, on May 14, 1929.

The piece, a copy of the original which was commissioned by the government of Chile as a gift to the country of Brazil and is on public display in Rio de Janeiro, was placed outside of the museum in 1930. An award, named after Matte, was created in 1922 by the Chilean Ministry of Education for notable Chilean sculptors.

Connections

teacher:

Belle Arti Firenze