Paul LANDOWSKI (1875-1961). - Lot 89

Paul LANDOWSKI (1875-1961). Plaster forming women's bodies. Mark under the base in graphite. H_22 cm Paul Landowski (1875-1961) was an internationally renowned French sculptor, best known as the creator of Rio de Janeiro's Christ the Redeemer, one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. Born in Paris on June 1ᵉʳ, 1875, he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts under Jules Coutan and won the Prix de Rome in 1900, which enabled him to stay at the Villa Médicis. His classical training left a lasting mark on his work, characterized by a quest for balance between realism, symbolism and humanism. His art, deeply imbued with a spiritual vision of man, exalts the dignity and inner strength of the figures he sculpts. In addition to Christ the Redeemer, created between 1922 and 1931 in collaboration with Brazilian engineer Heitor da Silva Costa and sculptor Gheorghe Leonida for the face, Landowski is the author of numerous monumental works: These include Le Monument à Pasteur (1908) in Paris, Le Monument aux morts de l'Armée d'Orient et des terres lointaines (1924) at the Porte Dorée, Les Fantômes (1935) in Soissons, a moving tribute to the soldiers of the Great War, and several allegorical statues for the Palais de Chaillot at the 1937 International Exhibition. Appointed Director of the Académie de France in Rome from 1933 to 1937, then Inspector General of Fine Arts, he occupies a major place in French artistic life of the XXᵉ century. Faithful to the spirit of classicism while seeking to adapt it to modernity, Landowski defended sculpture at the service of spirituality, memory and man. He died in Boulogne-Billancourt on March 31, 1961. A large part of his work and archives are now preserved in the Musée Landowski, which perpetuates the memory of this humanist and visionary sculptor.