The Grand Kid

WHEN I WAS ASKED by the commune of Beausoleil if I wanted to get involved in the “Village Charlot” project, there was never a doubt in my mind. The plan to transform a beautiful Belle Epoque property into a cultural center with free access for everyone appealed immediately to my creative nature. What’s more, the new state-of-the-art library and media center is to be named after my grandfather Charlie Chaplin, who was known in France as Charlot. He would have definitely approved of the project; so who was I to turn down a chance to show my support?

Fast forward a few months and I have just packed up my art and headed back to my home in Switzerland after a fantastic few weeks exhibiting in Beausoleil, where the Charlot project will be officially launched later this year.

Although I never met my grandfather, who died ten years before I was born, I know that he would have been honored to be associated with the Village Charlot project. He would have certainly loved an opportunity to return to Monaco, which he visited on numerous occasions, reveling in the sheer luxury of it all which he never took for granted. He famously said, “the saddest thing I can imagine is to get used to luxury.”

While I missed out on the chance of ever meeting my grandfather, I have always felt like I had a close connection to him, which I think you can see in my art. I spent my early childhood growing up in Manoir de Ban, the home where my grandfather and grandmother lived before they died. He was everywhere in that house; in the garden that he loved so much, in the fields where the horses lived, and in all the stories that my father used to tell us about living with his father. I definitely inherited his artistic and creative genes, as well as his love of animals. When I was very young we had three Shetland ponies in the garden and they became my passion. I used to take them in the swimming pool and into the house until my parents banned me from even touching them!

Horses have remained a really important part of my life—I have a stable in Spain and horses at home in Switzerland—and they feature as one of my three main subject matters throughout my art. The other subjects are lady silhouettes and my grandfather. When I wasn’t playing with the ponies, I was drawing or painting. I used to spend hours drawing at my grandfather’s house and then sell the drawings for 2 francs to any passerby. The passion has always been there. But it was only when a friend saw a Pop Art drawing I had done for my mom’s 40th birthday and persuaded me to talk to a gallerist in Montreux that I thought I could make a living out of my passion.

 I had 60 paintings in that first exhibition, with nearly all of them featuring a clin d’oeil to my grandfather, some more subtle than others. No matter what I do, he’s present. I’m always going to be associated with him; all my life it’s been like that. I’ve had no choice, but quite honestly, it’s much more of a privilege than anything else. In my latest exhibition in Beausoleil I wanted to show pieces that would stimulate positive emotions. My grandfather gave me the importance of laughter and feeling happy. I’ve seen how it affects me and like him, feel the need to make people smile. I feel extremely lucky that my father, no doubt having heard it from my grandfather, taught me and my seven brothers and sisters to follow our hearts and dreams. This sense of hope and ambition is a theme that runs through a number of my paintings, for example, Glimmer of Hope, Little Seeds Grow Mighty Trees which was inspired by Charlie Chaplin’s own upbringing, and Dreams Do Come True, Look Up.

My grandfather always used to say that you would never find a rainbow if you're looking down, that you needed to hold your head high if you wanted to achieve things. This theme can also be seen in one of my latest works, called Never Give Up. I started it in 2021 for the 100th anniversary of the film The Kid, but found it really draining so I only finished it this year. The painting features my grandfather looking at himself as a little boy, telling him not to give up. My grandfather went through a lot as a young boy and during his life, but he never gave up, or lost belief in himself. And thankfully he didn’t, as his message is still as strong and as meaningful today.

Without a doubt one of my most cherished paintings is called Swing Little Girl, Swing High to the Sky, which was a song he wrote. In this picture, I drew a girl on a swing with a man in a bowler hat holding a cane. I like to think that this is me swinging with him, and he’s singing to me. A rather lovely addendum to this is that when a young woman came to one of my exhibitions and saw this painting she broke down in tears. She had recently lost her father, and the picture resonated so strongly with her that she decided to buy the piece using some of her inheritance, which also made me happy. My biggest mission is to transmit through my art something that makes people feel good, something that makes them smile.

By Laura Chaplin

Contributor