People around Philippe Smit

Coming from a family originally from Bois-le-Roi (Seine-et-Marne), René Massé meets Philippe Smit - a poor young man at the time - in Paris around 1905, at a drawing class. According to an anecdote he confided to Anton Zelling many years later,¹ their teacher is said to have taken Massé aside and urged him never to abandon his fellow student, but to look after him “like a mother”, predicting: “For I assure you: that boy is a genius, and his life will not be easy!” Zelling reports that Massé kept this promise and remained faithful to Smit, with whom he shared a friendship lasting nearly forty years. Reflecting on this fraternal bond, Zelling would later marvel in his writings: “What a miracle that the three of us, Philippe, René and I, should have been lifelong companions, until death parted us.”²

The two men attend, among other establishments, “L’Académie” in rue Étienne-Marcel and Monsieur Gery-Richard’s school in rue Montgolfier. From January 1910 onwards, Massé keeps in an album the letters sent to him by the painter, and records the details of their many encounters in a manuscript - of which only the years 1920–1935 survive.

Massé’s wife runs an embroidery workshop in rue Saint-Marc, Paris, while he himself works as a decorator for the jeweller Boucheron until 1933. A great admirer of Smit’s work, he exhibits his own creations at the Salon d’Automne in 1919.³

René Massé dies on 3 June 1944.

1. See biographical note on Anton Zelling.
2. p. 78 of a manuscript by Anton Zelling — written mainly in Dutch, with a few quotations in French — held by his descendants in the United States. The FdDPS archives hold a copy, with permission to publish extracts.
3. N° 1310 – Une vitrine contenant: Coussin les Chrysanthèmes (broderie au passé); […] Collaboration pour l’exécution: Mme René Massé. (A showcase containing: Cushion Chrysanthemums (embroidery); […] With the assistance in the execution: Mrs. René Massé).