Marie Christine Maitre de Tarragon
About the Artist
Biography
Marie Christine attended St. Alyre Clermont Ferrand and received her Baccalaureate with Honors at the Holly Child in Paris. She studied psychology at Paris Vincennes, and sculpture at the University of Utah at Salt Lake, the University of Pittsburg, and Bellarmine College under Bob Lockhart, as well as the Artist School of Scottsdale, Arizona as a student of Jerry Cox, Grant Speed, Stanley Bleinfeld, and Veryl Goodnight .
Marie-Christine has created an extensive body of work held by collectors in France, Japan and the United States.
Bronzes, outdoor, life size sculptures, bas-relief, (classical trumeaux), pencil drawings, oils and painted silks.
She has a permanent installation of twelve life size horse head, creating a fountain in Louisville, Kentucky.
In addition to her showing in France she has exhibited in Louisville, Kentucky, at the Louisville Horse Park, numerous gallaries in Tennesee and the Historical Museum and the Center for the Arts in Aiken, South Carolina.
Marie-Christine is also a member of the French Heritage Society and the NYSSA.
Marie-Christine Maitre de Tarragon was born in Burgundy, France. She grew up in the family chateau, surrounded by art and horses. Her great-grandfather, the Marquis de Valdahon, was a renowned eighteenth century painter. Her grandmother, the Countess Marie de Tarragon studied art under the master Redoute. Her uncle, Count Richard de Tarragon, was a sculptor in the Bugatti tradition. His mentor was the sculptor PomPon, whose work is in the Museum of Dijon.
When Marie-Christine moved to America, she trained and rode steeplechasers and racing quarter horses. She now trains reining horses in addition to creating beautiful equine sculptures and paintings.
Her life with her horses and her art is intertwined.
"Throughout history, no animal has surpassed the horse as an object of human passion. The first conquest of Alexander the Great was the untamable Bucephalus; Richard the Third cried ,"my kingdom for a horse"; Jeanne d'Arc's war horse was an emblem of her knighthood. Through the centuries, the horse has embodied the human search for a particular kind of ideal - nobility without pride, beauty without vanity, fidelity without covetousness.
"All my life, horses have been my constant companions. They taught me courage, compassion and patience and their attentive ears are tuned to my heart."