Robert Alexandre CAULET (French, Marseille 1906 - 1984)

Robert Alexandre CAULET (February 14, 1906 - February 29, 1984), born and died in Marseille, was a painter, professor of drawing, resistant in Corrèze. Robert CAULET was born February 14, 1906 in Marseille boulevard de la Liberté. His parents were from Sisteron. The family moved to Paris sometime later. Robert was studing at the public elementary school for boys at 15 rue Turgot (Paris 9th) from 1912 until May 1919. He lived in Paris during the World War I. At the age of 14, Robert worked in the factory making fillets on the plates (Sèvres porcelain). At the age of 15, he passes the entrance examination at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris but only stays there for 3 months, as his parents could not finance his studies. He continues to work at the factory and takes evening drawing classes. In 1922, a teacher from the National School of Fine Arts describes him as a "hardworking and talented student whose progress is sensitive". For his military service, he was sent to Bizerte (Tunisia) among the Zouaves in May 1926. Demobilized on the spot, he prepares the professorship of drawing which he will pass in Paris: in 1929 he is received 1st in the 1st degree of the Certificate of aptitude to the teaching of the drawing in the high schools and colleges. He applied for a job in Indochina but was appointed in Reunion, in August 1930, at Leconte de Lisle high school in Saint Denis. He exhibited in Reunion, in July 1931, at the Léon Dierx museum. He returned to Paris in 1934, then was appointed to Tunisia at the College of Sousse from November 1934 to November 1937. In 1937 he was not maintained in Tunisia and was appointed, at his request, in Dakar, at Van Vollenhoven high school. He was appointed to Tulle in November 1941. He was a drawing teacher at Edmond Perrier High School until December 1945. He got in touch with the local resistance movements. In particular, he becomes close to Gibert BUGEAC and Martial BRIGOULEIX who will be arrested and shot on October 2, 1943 at Mont-Valérien. Totally involved in the resistance, he became in charge of the National Front for Corrèze in 1942, under the pseudonym "Laurent". On January 21, 1946 in Egletons, He married Renee Marie REISS, born September 9, 1921 in Ars-sur-Moselle. At the beginning of 1946, he was posted to Marseille, at Lycée Thiers and then at Marseilleveyre high school, a high school where he invested himself a lot. He participates in many projects: theater (sets, costumes), creation of iron frescoes in the auditorium with his friend Georges ROLLAND. He died on February 29, 1984 in Marseille.