Auction closes on Saturday 10 September
Online auction of paintings
and a DETT studio collection
Odette Durand (1885-1972) known as DETT is a French animal painter.
She was born on January 8, 1885 in Paris in the 6th district is the daughter of Charles Durand and Marguerite Billion du Rousset.
She is the eighth of nine children, seven girls and two boys.
Gifted for drawing and not very interested in studies, she entered the Académie Julian in 1900 which had just opened its doors to women in 1897.
A student of Busson and Laurens, her taste naturally led her to animal painting. She already signed her first works "Dett".
In 1912 after the death of her father, she left Paris and settled in Saint-Martin de Verfeil where she bought a property with a friend.
a property with a friend.
She then exhibited in Toulouse, at the Indépendants and at the Salon de l'Hippique.
In 1914, as a nurse at the Red Cross in Toulouse and then in Paris at the Japanese hospital2, she met a wounded airman,
André Rossignol du Bellay, a friend of Guynemer, whom she married in 1916. The couple had a daughter in 1918 who died at
birth. In 1919 a second daughter was born, named Armelle.
After the war, in 1920, the couple returned to Saint-Martin of which they were now the sole owners
but they quickly sold it to settle in Pau. In 1924 André met Charles Beigbeder with whom he ran a sanatorium in the
a sanatorium in the Pyrenees. The couple then settled near Pau and devoted their leisure time to horses
which are their common passion.
Horseback riding, horse shows and polo were sources of inspiration for Dett, who exhibited in Pau, Biarritz and Paris.
In 1939 the couple separated, and after the war Odette moved to Guéthary with her daughter.
Her husband died in 1969 in Pau and Dett died on June 14, 1972 in Paris.
Exhibitions
- 1913 : Paris, horse show
- 1914 : Paris, horse show
- 1926 : Arcachon
- 1927 : Paris, horse show
- 1928 : Paris, horse show
- 1944 : Toulouse, artistic show of France
- 1947 : Pau, casino, Dett animal painter