FRENCH MEMORIAL SCULPTURE

(Memorial Images © Nicholas Philpot)

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​Gaston Broquet, 1880-1947 Trained at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, & served 32 months as a stretcher-bearer at the Front in WW1. His wife Jeanne was the daughter and pupil of sculptor Adolphe Itasse, and an accomplished sculptress in her own right, being one of the few women to receive a commission for a war memorial (as at Pouldreuzic, Finistére).
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​Jules Déchin, 1869 (Lille)-1947 Trained in Lille & at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris; spend 4 years in Rome on a scholarship from the city of his birth; & thereafter worked in France, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada, Russia & the USA.

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​Paul Maximilian Landowski, 1875-1961. The son of a Polish refugee, he grew up in Paris & was trained from 1895 at the École des Beaux Arts.  In 1900 he won the Prix de Rome, earning him 4 years of study there. In a career of over 55 years he produced many monuments in Paris & the surrounding area, & elsewhere abroad, also war memorials in France, Algeria & Morocco; & is perhaps best known for his Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, 1931.

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René Quillivic, 1879-1969. Born at Plouhinec, in the Finistère department of Brittany, into a Breton-speaking family, he learned French during training as a carpenter-joiner, mastering the alphabet when in military service. Later turning to sculpture, he was awarded a scholarship which enabled him to study at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris, in the atelier of Antonin Mercié. Apart from sculpture in general (he also worked as a wood engraver, and ceramicist), he was responsible in Lower Brittany for 22 war memorials, mostly of pacifist inspiration.

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Maxime Réal del Sarte, 1888-1954. His father was a sculptor, & his mother a painter. Trained at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris, from 1908. A devout Catholic & a Royalist, he was active in right-wing politics, once receiving a 6-month prison sentence. In WW1, he served as an Infantry Lieutenant on the Verdun front, being wounded at Les Éparges & losing his left fore-arm. In 1921, he received the Grand Prix des Beaux Arts, for a work started in 1914.  He continued with his political militancy, along with c 100 works of sculpture, including a statue of Marshal Joffre, & over 2 dozen war memorials.

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Albert Dominique Roze, b.1861(Amiens), d.1952 He first trained in the city of his birth, & between 1879-81 at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris.  Two years were then spent in Italy; thereafter he served as Director of the École des Beaux Arts in Amiens from 1893-1911. After WW1 he played a prominent part in the selection of designs for war memorials, & himself was responsible for some 20 of them, mostly in the department of the Somme.
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​Félix-Alexandre Desruelles, 1865-1943                                       Click here for Images

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Some classic statues frequently found on war memorials throughout France

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