Max Le Verrier

Signature Max Le Verrier

Louis Octave Maxime Le Verrier , or Max Le Verrier for short (born January 29, 1891 in Neuilly-sur-Seine , France , † June 6, 1973 in Paris , France) was a French sculptor. He also used the stage name Arthur .

Life

Le Verrier was the son of a Parisian goldsmith and jeweler ; his mother was from Belgium . His parents separated when he was seven years old. He attended several boarding schools, including the École des Roches in Verneuil-sur-Avre .

Against Max's will, his father sent him to study agriculture in Saint-Sever (Landes) and La Réole . He returned to Paris at the age of 16 and took odd jobs to avoid working in agriculture. In 1909 he left France and moved to London for a short time , where he found it difficult to find work.

Le Verrier worked at a flight school in Rendon, where he first maintained aircraft and then obtained his pilot's license in 1913. During the First World War he was used in a French bomber squadron from February 1915. On May 25, 1915, he was shot down by a German fighter plane in an aerial battle. As missing classified, he received the French military medal and the Croix de guerre 1914-1918 . During his captivity in Münster , the NCO was not stopped to work. He asked for tools and modeling clay and began sculpting. Le Verrier made friends with other artists in the camp and portrayed some of his fellow prisoners. In 1917 he was interned in Switzerland as part of a prisoner exchange . At the École des Beaux-Arts in Geneva , he studied with Marcel Bouraine and Pierre Le Faguays , who remained friends throughout their lives and often worked together.

After the war, Le Verrier returned to Paris, where he married Jeanne Hubrecht in 1921, with whom he had two sons. In the early 1920s he inherited a small foundry in which he was soon producing small sculptures and decorative objects such as lamps, ashtrays, bookends and hood ornaments in the Art Deco style . In addition to his own sculptures, he cast for the artists Pierre Le Faguay, Marcel Bouraine, André Vincent Becquerel and Jules Masson . He mostly worked with bronze, ivory, zinc, terracotta and ceramics. Le Verrier showed his work in the salons of the Société des artistes décorateurs , of which he was an elected member. He won a gold medal at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et industriels moderne in 1925. He also exhibited at the Paris World Exhibition in 1937 . During the Art Deco period, his female figures - such as his work Clarte - became particularly well known, which were characterized by their flexible, athletic bodies in perfect symmetry. Le Verrier's work also included animal sculptures such as pelicans, storks, squirrels, chimpanzees, horses, lions and black panthers .

During the Second World War , Le Verrier's house was used as a dead post box for the Resistance . He was held in cellars for four days by the militia of the Vichy regime collaborating with the National Socialist German Reich and handed over to the German occupiers, who ultimately let him go again. The militia returned a few days later, but Le Verrier was able to escape through a hidden door. Using false papers, he first sought refuge with a friend in Paris and then made his way to his house in the Gers department in southern France, where his wife and children were already waiting for him.

In September 1944, Le Verrier returned to Paris, where he found his apartment and workshop looted. At the end of the war he was able to reopen his workshop. In addition to a series of small animal sculptures with birds, rhinos, donkeys, goats, bears and sea lions as well as the sculpture group Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, Le Verrier poured everyday items such as ashtrays, office supplies and souvenirs. He worked in his Paris studio until his death in 1973. Max Le Verrier was laid to rest in the cemetery of Fontenay-lès-Briis near his friend Pierre Le Faguays.

Works (selection)

Hood ornament Envole Sadi Femme au voile Plein gaz Eola Isa Fauns à la flûte	Sports figures Appel Embuscade Archer Belluaire Icare Gloire Vainqueur	Dancer figures Lueur Grace Tourbillon Danseuse aux boules Amazon au javelot Bayadère Atalante	Animal figures Baghera Sing à la lanterne Chimers Marabout Chanson d'amour Soif you désert Vautour

Exhibitions

Three women were the models for Le Verrier's work Clarte ; one for the head, one for the chest, and one for the legs. After his death it was shown at the exhibitions:

• “Lumières” in the Center Georges-Pompidou , Paris 1985.
• “Made in France” in Harrods department store , London 1987.
• “De Main De Maître” in the Grand Palais , Paris 1987.
• Hotel Martinez , Cannes 2000.
• Two issues are now in the Hôtel Lutetia , Paris.

literature

• Alberto Shayo : Statuettes art deco period. Antique Collectors Club 2016, ISBN 1-85149-824-9 . P. 158.
• Emmanuel Bénézit : Dictionary of Artists . ISBN 978-0-19977-378-7 , 2006. Entry: LE VERRIER, Max (1891–1973), Sculptor.

Web links

• The sculptor . Biography Max Le Verrier on maxleverrier.com
• Le Verrier, Max - Biography. on artdecoceramicglasslight.com