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Carlos María de Alvear

Carlos María de Alvear (October 25, 1789, Santo Ángel, Misiones – November 3, 1852, New York, United States) was an Argentine soldier and statesman, Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata in 1815.

Early life[link]

He was born in the northern part of the Viceroyalty of the River Plate to a Spanish nobleman father, Diego de Alvear y Ponce de León, and a criollo mother, María Balbastro and baptised Carlos Antonio del Santo Ángel Guardián. His birthplace Santo Ángel was, at that time, part of Misiones Province, but currently belongs to the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.

While travelling in Spain, Alvear's brothers and mother died in an incident that took place on October 5, 1804, when English frigates opened fire on the Spanish ship that was transporting them. This incident was a preamble to the Battle of Trafalgar and the consequent war between both countries. The English took Alvear and his father, together with other survivors, as prisoners to England, where Diego de Alvear would later marry an Irish woman.

Honouring his mother, Carlos de Alvear adopted the name of Carlos María de Alvear. Notwithstanding the fate of his mother and brothers at the hands of the English, 15-year-old Carlos was partially educated in the English culture, adopting, in his adult age, what some would later see as a position partial to English interests.

Military career[link]

Alvear was one of the few professional military officers to participate of the Argentine War of Independence on the side of the revolutionaries, having served in the Spanish Army during the Napoleonic Wars. While in Cadiz, he founded the Sociedad de los Caballeros Racionales, a masonic secret society, made up of South Americans. José de San Martín, with whom Alvear would always have a conflictive and contradictory relationship, would later also become a member of this secret society.

He returned to Buenos Aires on board the English frigate George Canning, in which were also travelling San Martín, Juan Matías Zapiola, Francisco Chilavert and other soldiers. Upon his arrival, Alvear was named Lieutenant Coronel of the young Argentine army. He led the action against the Royal army under Gaspar Vigodet in Montevideo, replacing José Rondeau and making the Oriental leader José Gervasio Artigas an enemy.

Alvear was a leader of the constituent Assembly of the year 1813 and, goaded by political ambition, succeeded in establishing an Unitarian (centralizing) form of government, having his uncle Gervasio Antonio de Posadas named Supreme Director (chief executive).

In early 1814, Alvear was appointed commander in chief of the forces defending the capital. A few months later, he replaced General José Rondeau as commander in chief of the army besieging Montevideo, the last bastion of Spanish power in the River Plate, which was defended by 5,000 troops. In late June 1814, as news that Ferdinand VII had recovered the crown of Spain, Alvear managed to force the surrender of the Spanish troops in Montevideo. It was the biggest victory for the cause of independence since 1810. He was only 25 and the most successful general of the revolution. He returned to Buenos Aires to claim his laurels but a revolt forced him back to the Banda Oriental. After a quick and decisive campaign, his forces defeated the caudillos that opposed the government.

At the end of 1814 Alvear was named commander of the Army of the North, but he lacked of support from Posadas, and his unpopularity among the troops, and other disagreements -including a project for a constitutional monarchy that he sent to Europe to be negotiated by Manuel Belgrano, that was fiercely opposed by the League of the Free Peoples- made him return to Buenos Aires. On January 9, 1815, at 25 years of age, he was chosen to replace his uncle Posadas as Supreme Director.

Having neither the support of the troops nor sufficient influence on the people of the hinterland provinces, Director Alvear then attempted to come to an alliance with Artigas, to whom he offered the independence of the Banda Oriental (current Uruguay). In exchange, Artigas would withdraw his army from the Argentine Littoral. But Artigas declined the offer, and Alvear sent troops to occupy the area.

At this time he was in correspondence with the British ambassador in Rio de Janeiro, in order to ask for a British intervention. Following a mutiny among his troops, and under pressure from the Cabildo, Alvear resigned on April 15, and left the country. He was in exile in Rio de Janeiro until 1818. In May of that year, he moved to Montevideo where he joined his friend, the Chilean Jose Miguel Carrera, also exiled due to political differences with San Martin and Bernardo O'Higgins.

Diplomatic Missions to England, United States and Bolivia[link]

Alvear returned to Argentina in 1822 thanks to an amnesty law (Ley del olvido). At the end of 1823, Bernardino Rivadavia named him minister plenipotentiary to the United States. Before going to Washington, Alvear stopped in London and managed to get an interview with George Canning, Britain's Foreign Secretary. Weeks after this interview, the British cabinet formally recognized the independence of the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata. In 1825 Alvear was sent by the Buenos Aires government to Bolivia to meet with Simón Bolivar. The real objective of this mission was to seek Bolivar's support in the looming war with the Empire of Brazil, over the Banda Oriental. Alvear had also a project of his own: the creation of big republic in South America comprising Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay. He asked Bolivar to be its first president. The Venezuelan leader was sympathetic to this project but dissensions in Gran Colombia forced him to abandon it.

War Against the Empire of Brazil[link]

To neutralize Alvear's political ambitions, newly elected President Bernardino Rivadavia appointed him his Minister of War and Navy in early 1826. In a short period of time, and with limited resources, Alvear was able to raise an army of 8.000 men to wage war against the Empire of Brazil. Conflicting claims over the Banda Oriental (current Uruguay) pushed both countries into conflict. Victory seemed unattainable to the Argentines. At the time, Brazil had a population of close to 5 million inhabitants (including 2 million slaves), a standing army of 120.000 men and a naval fleet of almost 80 vessels. In contrast, the fledgling Argentine Republic had only 700,000 inhabitants and faced the secession of almost half of its provinces.

Fearing a Brazilian invasion of Argentine territory, in mid 1826, President Rivadavia appointed Alvear as commander in chief of the Argentine army, which was in mutiny. Alvear quickly restored discipline and put the troops in fighting condition. By the end of the year, after only three months on the job, he took the initiative and launched an invasion of the Brazilian province of Rio Grande do Sul. Among Alvear's objectives was to promote a slave rebellion which would force the Emperor to seek an armistice.

During the first months of 1827 Cisplatine War, the Argentine Army entered Brazilian territory and defeated the Brazilians at Bagé, Ombú, Camacuá and the great Battle of Ituzaingó, probably the most important victory of his career. It was his brilliant and fearless conduct during this campaign, and the memorable victory which ended it, that made controversial Alvear a national hero among Argentine people ever since. However, internal disenssions in Argentina and the signing of what was perceived to be a humiliating peace treaty brought down Rivadavia's presidency. Without any political backing or support from Buenos Aires. Alvear tendered his resignation and returned to Buenos Aires. When he arrived in the capital, he realized he had been removed by the new government, which did everything possible to discredit him and Rivadavia.

Alvear and Rosas[link]

In 1829 Juan Manuel de Rosas appeared in the Argentine political scene, inaugurating a controversial regime that on and off would last almost 23 years. Alvear was one of the leader's of the opposition and, in 1832, Rosas very shrewdly appointed him ambassador to the United States, as a way of neutralizing his political ambitions. A change in government the following year allowed Alvear to remain in Buenos Aires. However, when Rosas returned to power in 1835, he again tried to get rid of Alvear, who he suspected was conspiring against his government.

Argentina's First Ambassador to the United States[link]

In early 1837, after discovering evidence that linked Alvear to a new conspiracy, Rosas appointed him Argentina's first minister plenipotentiary to the United States. However, he was only able to depart the following year. Alvear spent the rest of his life as ambassador in the U.S. and died in his house in New York in November 1852. During his residence in the United States, Alvear had the opportunity to meet and interact with important political figures such as Joel Roberts Poinsett, Daniel Webster, John Calhoun and James Buchanan, among others. Alvear's instructions were mostly concerned with obtaining an apology from the United States regarding the conduct of an American warship at the Falkland Islands, and to reassert Argentine claims to those islands. The U.S. government was indifferent to the Argentine claims. Seeing that nothing more could be expected from Washington, Alvear requested to be transferred to Europe, but Rosas refused. As the conflict between Argentina and France, and later Britain, intensified, Alvear tried to get the support of the United States arguing that it would be consistent with the Monroe Doctrine. At the time, however, the United States was more concerned about the situation in Texas and Oregon, so remained neutral in this conflict. Although a political enemy of Rosas, Alvear admired him for his stance against France and England.

Although he had been a life long admirer of the United States, after the annexation of Texas (1845) and the subsequent war with Mexico (1846–1848), Alvear became wary of American intentions towards Spanish America. According to his American biographer Thomas Davis, his diplomatic correspondence shaped Argentina's traditional distrust to U.S. policies, which Alvear felt included the desire to conquer, or at least dominate, all of Latin America.

Carlos María de Alvear was buried in La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires.

Legacy[link]

Bartolomé Mitre, author of the biography of San Martín Historia de San Martín y de la emancipación sudamericana, was very critical of Alvear, describing him as an ambitious and dictatorial. Most later historians reject Alvear as well, albeit for different reasons. Leftist authors support Monteagudo but reject Alvear, despite their political relation. Revisionist authors, supporters of anti-imperialism, condemn Alvear for the attempt to turn the United Provinces into a British protectorate and relate him with the party of Bernardino Rivadavia, despite them being enemies.^[1]

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Galasso, Norberto (2009). Seamos Libres y lo demás no importa nada. Buenos Aires: Colihue. ISBN 978-950-581-779-5. 
• Alvear, Carlos Maria de, El general Alvear a propósito de las memorias del general Iriarte, Emece Editores, Buenos Aires, 1986.
• Carranza, Ángel J., Biografía del General don Carlos María de Alvear, Documento manuscrito, Colección Alvear, AGN, Buenos Aires.
• Comisión del Segundo Centenario del General Carlos María de Alvear, Emece Editores, Buenos Aires, 1989.
• Davis, Thomas B.: Carlos de Alvear, Man of Revolution. The Diplomatic Career of Argentina's First Minister to the United States. Durham, NC, Duke University Press, 1955
• Fernandez Lalanne, Pedro, Los Alvear, Emecé Editores, Buenos Aires, 1980.
• Ocampo, Emilio, Alvear en la Guerra con el Imperio de Brasil, Editorial Claridad, Buenos Aires, 2003.
• Rodríguez, Gregorio F., Historia de Alvear, Cía. Sudamericana de Billetes de Banco, 2 tomos, Buenos Aires, 1909
• Rodríguez, Gregorio F., Contribución Histórica y Documental, Buenos Aires, 3 tomos, Talleres “Casa Jacobo Peuser”, 1921.

• (Spanish) Biography.
• (Spanish) Alvear's letter to San Martín while in exile

v t e Heads of state of Argentina May Revolution and Independence War Period up to Asamblea del Año XIII (1810–1814) Primera Junta  · Junta Grande  · First Triumvirate  · Second Triumvirate Supreme Directors of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (1814–1820) Gervasio Antonio de Posadas · Carlos María de Alvear · Juan José Viamonte · José Rondeau · Ignacio Álvarez Thomas · Antonio González de Balcarce · Juan Martín de Pueyrredón · José Rondeau · Juan Pedro Aguirre Unitarian Republic – First Presidential Government (1826–1827) Bernardino Rivadavia · Vicente López y Planes Pacto Federal and Argentine Confederation (1827–1862) Manuel Dorrego · Juan Manuel de Rosas · Juan Ramón Balcarce · Juan José Viamonte · Manuel Vicente Maza · Juan Manuel de Rosas · Justo José de Urquiza · Santiago Derqui · Juan Esteban Pedernera National Organization – Argentine Republic (1862–1880) Bartolomé Mitre · Domingo Faustino Sarmiento · Nicolás Avellaneda Generation of '80 – Oligarchic Republic (1880–1916) Julio Argentino Roca · Miguel Juárez Celman · Carlos Pellegrini · Luis Sáenz Peña · José Evaristo Uriburu · Julio Argentino Roca · Manuel Quintana · José Figueroa Alcorta · Roque Sáenz Peña · Victorino de la Plaza First Radical Civic Union terms, after Universal (Male) Suffrage (1916–1930) Hipólito Yrigoyen · Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear · Hipólito Yrigoyen Infamous Decade (1930–1943) José Félix Uriburu · Agustín Pedro Justo · Roberto María Ortiz · Ramón Castillo Revolution of '43 military dictatorships (1943–1946) Arturo Rawson · Pedro Pablo Ramírez · Edelmiro Julián Farrell First Peronist terms (1946–1955) Juan Domingo Perón Revolución Libertadora military dictatorships (1955–1958) Eduardo Lonardi · Pedro Eugenio Aramburu Fragile civilian governments – Proscription of Peronism (1958–1966) Arturo Frondizi · José María Guido · Arturo Umberto Illia Revolución Argentina military dictatorships (1966–1973) Juan Carlos Onganía · Roberto M. Levingston · Alejandro Agustín Lanusse Return of Perón (1973–1976) Héctor José Cámpora · Raúl Alberto Lastiri · Juan Domingo Perón · Isabel Martínez de Perón National Reorganization Process military dictatorships (1976–1983) Jorge Rafael Videla · Roberto Eduardo Viola · Leopoldo Galtieri · Reynaldo Bignone Return to Democracy (1983–present) Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín · Carlos Saúl Menem · Fernando de la Rúa · Adolfo Rodríguez Saá · Eduardo Duhalde · Néstor Kirchner · Cristina Fernández de Kirchner Portal:Politics · Politics of Argentina · President of Argentina · List of heads of state of Argentina

Antoine Bourdelle in 1925.

Antoine Bourdelle (October 30, 1861, Montauban – October 1, 1929), born Émile Antoine Bourdelle, was an influential and prolific French sculptor, painter, and teacher.

His studio became the Musée Bourdelle, an art museum dedicated to his work, located at 18, rue Antoine Bourdelle, in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, France.

Career[link]

Bourdelle was born at Montauban, Tarn-et-Garonne. He left school at the age of 13 to work as a wood carver in his father's cabinet making shop. He learned drawing with the founder of the Ingres Museum in Montauban, then sculpture at the art school in Toulouse. At the age of 24 he won a scholarship to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, worked briefly in the atelier of Alexandre Falguière, and frequented the studio of Jules Dalou, who was his neighbor.^[1]

In 1888 he did his first sculptures of Beethoven, producing authoritative work with an emphasis on order, the spirit of geometry, construction and invention. He became one of the pioneers of 20th century monumental sculpture. Auguste Rodin became a great admirer of his work, and by September 1893 Antoine Bourdelle joined Rodin as his assistant where he soon became a popular teacher, both there and at his own studio where many future prominent artists attended his classes, so that his influence on sculpture was considerable.

During his last years, Bourdelle received several commissions for monuments and war memorials. He was a participant in the 1913 Armory Show in New York, a founder and vice-president of the Parisian Salon des Tuileries, and in 1924 became a commander of the Legion of Honor. Bourdelle's son, Pierre Bourdelle (1901–1966), became an artist most active in the United States, notable for his work at Cincinnati Union Terminal in 1933.

Bourdelle died at Le Vésinet, near Paris, on October 1, 1929 and was interred in the Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris, France.

Work[link]

Bust of Gustave Eiffel at the Eiffel Tower

Monument to Mickiewicz, 1929, Jardin d'Erevan, 8th arr., Paris

Hercules the Archer at the Trammell Crow Sculpture Garden in Dallas, Texas

Bourdelle's major work includes:

• spandrel reliefs for the portal of the Musée Grévin, Paris, 1900
• the Monument aux Morts de Montauban, 1902
• the freestanding gilded bronze Hercules the Archer, 1909
• the decorative series of friezes executed for the exterior of Auguste Perret's Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (1913). Although the building itself is famously an early example of concrete construction, the friezes are marble.
• interior frieze at the Opéra de Marseille, framing the stage
• the Monument to Mickiewicz near the Pont de l'Alma in Paris, designed in 1909, realized in 1929
• two angels on the crypt at the war memorial, Hartmannswillerkopf, for French architect Robert Danis, 1920s
• bronze tympanum Pieta for the Église Notre-Dame du Raincy, designed in the 1920s, finally realized and dedicated in September 1999
• equestrian statue of General Carlos María de Alvear, Recoleta, Buenos Aires
• war memorial, Capoulet-et-Junac

Today the Musée Bourdelle in Paris sits amidst brick houses at 18 rue Antoine Bourdelle, a small street between the Gare Montparnasse and the offices of the famous French newspaper Le Monde. The museum consists of Bourdelle's house, studio and garden where he worked from 1884 to 1929. A second Bourdelle garden-museum, in Égreville, was established by his heirs in the late 1960s hosts another 56 of his sculptures.

His work is also exhibited in public collections worldwide, including the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art (Japan), the Cleveland Museum of Art, National Museum of Art of Romania, the Courtauld Institute of Art (London), the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna (Rome), Harvard University Art Museums, the Hermitage Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington D.C.), the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth, Texas), Kröller-Müller Museum (Otterlo, Netherlands), the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Buenos Aires), the National Galleries of Scotland, the National Gallery of Australia, the Ingres museum in Montauban, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, and the Middelheim Museum (Antwerp, Belgium)

The teacher[link]

Artists who studied with Antoine Bourdelle included:

• Thanassis Apartis, Greece
• Alfredo Bigatti, Argentina
• Jose Luis Zorrilla de San Martin, Uruguay
• Samuel Cashwan, United States
• Pablo Curatella Manes, Argentina
• Béni Ferenczy, Hungary
• Alberto Giacometti, Switzerland
• Angela Gregory, United States
• Otto Gutfreund, Czechoslovakia
• Bror Hjorth, Sweden
• René Iché, France
• Raoul Josset, France/United States
• David Karfunkle, Austria/United States
• Emile Lahner, Hungary
• Aristide Maillol, France
• Vadym Meller, Russian Empire
• Vera Mukhina, Russian Empire/USSR
• Bencho Obreshkov, Bulgaria
• Dudley Pratt, United States
• Virginia Claflin Pratt, United States
• Germaine Richier, France
• Arnold Ronnebeck, Germany/United States
• Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, Portugal
• Risto Stijovic, Serbia
• Mihailo Tomic, Serbia
• Sreten Stojanovic, Serbia
• Josefina de Vasconcellos, England
• Helen Wilson, United States
• Teodors Zalkalns, Latvia
• Ryumon Yasuda, Japan

For a first hand account of Bourdelle's teaching style see Arnold Ronnebeck's article from 1925, published in The Arts 8, no. 4 titled "Bourdelle Speaks to His Pupils: From a Paris Diary."

Gallery[link]

• 

  The Great Warrior of Montauban, bronze, 1898, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.

• 

  Dominique Ingres, Musée Bourdelle, Paris

• 

  Day and Night, marble, 1903, Musée Bourdelle, Paris

• 

  La Grande Penelope, bronze, 1912, Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu, Hawaii

• 

  The Sculptress at Work, 1906, bronze, Stanford Museum, Stanford University, California

• 

  Monument to Alvear Horse, Trammell Crow Sculpture Garden, Dallas, Texas

• 

  Dying Centaur, 1914, bronze, Plaza Francia, Buenos Aires

• 

  La Liberté, Daido Life Insurance Company, Osaka, Japan

• 

  The Virgin of Alsace, 1919-21, Edinburgh, Scotland

• 

  Mécislas Goldberg, bronze, Musée Bourdelle, Paris

• 

  Monument to General Carlos M. de Alvear, Plaza Francia, Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina

• 

  Bust of Jean Moreas, bronze, National Sculpture Garden, Athens, Greece

References[link]

• Colin Lemoine, Antoine Bourdelle. L'oeuvre à demeure, Paris, Paris-Musées, 2009
• Bourdelle, Émile-Antoine, “Émile-Antoine Bourdelle, Sculptures and Drawings”, Perth, Western Australian Art Gallery, 1978.
• Ottawa.National Gallery of Canada, “Antoine Bourdelle, 1861-1929”, New York, C. E. Slatkin Galleries, 1961.
• Colin Lemoine, “Bourdelle”, Paris, Cercle d'art, 2004
• “Antoine Bourdelle, passeur de la modernité", exhibition catalogue (curators Roxana Theodorescu, Juliette Laffon and Colin Lemoine / Catalogue Colin Lemoine), Bucarest, National Museum of Art, 2006
• Colin Lemoine, “Le Fruit : une œuvre majuscule d’Antoine Bourdelle”, Ligeia, January–June 2005, n°57-58-59-60, p. 60-78
• Colin Lemoine, “...sans ce modelé à la Rodin, à la XVIIIe siècle qui beurre le tout : Bourdelle et la question d'un primitivisme occidental”, Bulletin du musée Ingres, May 2006, n° 78, p. 49-66
• Cléopâtre Sevastos, “Ma vie avec Bourdelle”, Paris-Musées-Editions des Cendres, 2005 (annoted edition by Colin Lemoine)
• Véronique Gautherin, “L'Oeil et la main” (2000)
• “Antoine Bourdelle, d'un siècle l'autre. L'eurythmie de la modernité”, exhibition catalogue by Colin Lemoine, Japan (Kitakyushu, Niigata, Takamatsu, Iwaki, Nagoya, Seoul), 2007-2008.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Antoine Bourdelle

• Musée Bourdelle (in French)
• Portrait of Rodin from Antoine Bourdelle, on the official website of the Musée Rodin.

Maria de Alvear (born 1960 in Madrid, Spain) is a Spanish-German composer living in Germany who was born to Spanish father and German mother.

References[link]

• New York Times review by Bernard Holland of Maria de Alvear's World (May 17, 1997), accessed 8 February 2010

External links[link]

• Maria de Alvear's web site
• Maria de Alvear's CDs
• Maria del Alvear on Kalvos.org

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