Monumental at any size - selected work of Raymond Delamarre

 

Mowgli, plaster, 1926.

Mowgli, gilded stucco, circa 1935. (As will become obvious, Delamarre frequently reproduced the same pieces in different sizes, media, and finishes.)

Étude de la Victoire, painted terracotta, 1924. (Two images.)

Persée et Andromède, study (?), patinated plaster (?), ND.

David, patinated bronze, 1924.

Head of a Man/David, bronze with gold patina, circa 1924 or 1930.

David - reduced version, patinated bronze, circa 1924 or 1930.

Eve, patinated bronze, circa 1928. (The same figure as that incorporated in the following group.)

La Tentation/Adam et Eve, patinated plaster, circa 1928.

La Tentation/Adam et Eve, patinated bronze, 1935.

Study, 1928.

Monument à la Défense du canal de Suez, 1925-30. (Four images.) The small figures here appear to have been added to the photograph for scale.

L'Intelligence Sereine and La Force Sévère, rose granite, 1925-30.

Study for the two sculptures, plaster (?), circa 1925.

Bronze medal commemorating the inauguration of the memorial, 1930.

The Palais de Chaillot/Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris crowned by Delamarre's Les Connaissances humaines, 1937 (Three images.)

Les Connaissances humaines, studies, patinated plaster, circa 1937.

Les Arts libéraux, study, plaster, circa 1937.

Les Connaissances humaines, reduced versions, patinated plaster, circa 1937 or later.

The first class dining room of the SS Normandie, at left, Delamarre's relief Les Arts et Monuments Régionaux. (Two images.)

Les Arts et Monuments Régionaux, patinated plaster, 1934.

Les Arts et Monuments Régionaux, study, patinated plaster, circa 1934.

La Famille, bas-relief at 34 rue Chomel, Paris, circa 1934. (Two images.)

Mowgli, study (?), plaster (?), circa 1929. This is an in-the-round version of the earlier bas-relief.

Mowgli, patinated bronze, circa 1929. (Two images.)

Portrait bust of Marie-Rose Jonnart-Du Sault, patinated plaster, 1923.

For some reason retitled "Suzanne", this is the same figure as above, but in marble, 1923. (Three images.)

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Raymond Delamarre (8 June 1890, Paris – 28 February 1986), French sculptor and medalist who played a major role in the Art Déco movement. At sixteen he began studies at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, working in the studio of Jules-Félix Coutan. His studies were interrupted by his conscription into the army from 1911 to 1913 and then military service for the duration of WWI; soon after mobilization he was sent to the front and almost immediately taken prisoner. He was released in an exchange of prisoners in 1916 but then returned to active service. At the conclusion of the war, he competed for and won the Prix de Rome, sharing the prize with fellow sculptor Alfred Janniot. He remained in Rome until 1924. The following year, working with the architect Michel Roux-Spitz - with whom he would frequently collaborate throughout his career - he contributed to the famous Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes, the hugely influential exposition that would give us the term "Art Déco." That same year they secured the commission for the Monument à la Défense du canal de Suez to be erected in Ismaîlia, Egypt, a work of huge proportions which took five years to complete, only being inaugurated in 1930. His two massive statues in rose granite were entitled L'Intelligence Sereine and La Force Sévère. He married in 1927. The next year he created an Adam and Eve group, La Tentation, which was to appear in various editions, both in bronze and plaster; one was delivered for the Salon Chantilly of the Hotel George V. In 1931, he participated in the Exposition Coloniale de Paris. Four years later he completed his work for the celebrated paquebot Normandie, a massive relief entitled Les Arts et Monuments Régionaux for the liner's first class dining room. He was made a chevalier of the Légion d'honneur in 1936. He completed an important group for the newly built Palais de Chaillot the following year. Known as Les Connaissances Humaines, the group consists of three four meter high allegories Les Arts plastiques, La Pensée, and Les Arts Libéraux. (Cast in 1938, they were only erected after WWII.) As with other of his work, the figures appeared in several later versions. Always prolific, he would continue his output of medal design and sculpture - often conceived for architectural settings - up until his death at the age of ninety-five.