Silver sculpture on a lapis lazuli base – Young nude girl sitting on a sheaf of flax (Jeune fille nue assise sur une gerbe de Lin) by Raymond Rivoire.
Dimensions: 10.16 x 12.7 x 10.16 cm. Purchased at auction: Nov 09, 2000, Auction house Tajan, Paris, Paintings & Sculptures 1820-1920, Lot 40.
RIVOIRE Léon Raymond
1884 - 1966
French sculptor, born October 21, 1884 in Cusset and died September 27, 1966.
Antoine Joseph Léon Raymond Rivoire was born into a bourgeois family. His father, Pierre Barthélemy Arthur Rivoire, owned land in Cannes, and his paternal grandfather was head of division at the Rhône prefecture.
A student of Jean-Antoine Injalbert at the Beaux-Arts School in Paris, he debuted at the Salon of French artists in 1905. He received a silver medal in 1921 and a gold medal in 1929. He exhibited in France and abroad: in London, Rome, and Buenos Aires.
For the liner "Normandie" he created a bronze sculpture of Neptune in a chariot drawn by hippocamps, which disappeared during a ship fire in New York in 1942. A copy of this sculpture still decorates a fountain in Cannes.
Another of his major works is Diana with a greyhound, also known as Artemis. This sculpture was present in the salon of the liner "L’Atlantique," where another fire occurred.
His sculptures can be found in several museums (the Louvre Museum, the Newark Museum (New Jersey, USA), as well as the Cusset Museum, which houses several of his works).
He was appointed Chevalier of the Legion of Honour on December 29, 1932, and was awarded on January 13, 1933, by Jean Gautier, Deputy Director of the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts.
At the end of his life, he lived in a retirement home for artists.
The sculpture was made at the Claude Valsuani Foundry (Cire C.Valsuani Perdue) (lost wax casting). THE CLAUDE VALSUANI FOUNDRY (lost wax process). Valsuani sculptures are considered rare and almost never appear on the art market. They usually sell at higher prices than sculptures from other French foundries. The Valsuani Foundry is a French art foundry for bronze works, located in Chevreuse (Paris region). Founded in 1899 in Châtillon (near Paris) by Claude Valsuani, the foundry settled in 1905 at 74 rue des Plantes, Paris. Valsuani quickly gained significant renown thanks to his technical mastery and the excellence of his lost-wax castings. He is especially famous for the beauty of his patinas, the most famous being the “Black Valsuani.”
After his death, the family business was taken over by his son Marcel, who later sold it to a Swiss company. Renowned for the quality of its lost wax castings, the Valsuani Foundry worked with many great artists, including Rodin, Bourdelle, Renoir, Picasso, Matisse, Rivoire, Degas, Gauguin, Pompon, Carpeaux, Daumier, Despiau, Troubetzkoy, and Dali.
Sculptor
Rivoire Raymond Léon
1884 - 1966
Raymond Léon Rivoire, born October 21, 1884 in Cusset and died September 27, 1966, was a French sculptor.
Antoine Joseph Léon Raymond Rivoire was born into a bourgeois family: his father, Pierre Barthélemy Arthur Rivoire, was a proprietor in Cannes and his paternal grandfather was head of division at the Rhône prefecture.
As one of Injalbert’s students at the Beaux-Arts in Paris, Raymond exhibited at the Salon of French Artists in 1905. He received a silver medal in 1921 and a gold in 1929. He exhibited in France and abroad in London, Rome, and Buenos Aires.
For the SS Normandie ocean liner, he produced a bronze cast representing Neptune pulled by a sea horse that disappeared in the ship’s fire in New York in 1942; a second copy still adorns a fountain in Cannes.
Another of his major works is Diana (also known as Artemis) with the Greyhound. As with the SS Normandie liner, a monumental copy of this statue was exhibited in the large salon of the SS L'Atlantique. Scattered pieces of the work were found during the demolition that followed the fire.
Drawings of the artworks can be found in several museums (Louvre Museum, Newark Museum (New Jersey, United States), as well as at the Cusset Museum which conserves several of his creations).
He was appointed Knight of the Legion of Honour on December 29, 1932 and received it on January 13, 1933 from Jean Gautier, Deputy Director of the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts.
In his later years, he was a resident at Ris-Orangis, a retirement home for artists founded by Dranem.