Art & Statues
Max Le Verrier: Un Esprit Art Déco
Max Le Verrier: Un Esprit Art Déco
This is the first monograph dedicated entirely to sculptor and designer Max Le Verrier, whose figural lamps and bronze sculptures remain among the most recognizable objects of the French Art Deco period. Written by expert Bénédicte Wattel with Damien Blanchet Le Verrier, the artist's great-grandson and current head of the family foundry, the book draws directly on the company's own archives. Across 288 pages, it traces a century of production, from the original designs of the 1920s and 1930s through the foundry's continued work today.
Max Le Verrier built his reputation through a small group of instantly recognizable forms, including dancing women holding illuminated glass globes, sharp winged storks, and playful monkeys carrying umbrellas, all rendered in the streamlined bronze style that defined French Art Deco sculpture. This book is the first to focus exclusively on his life and work, drawing on archival material that had never before been compiled into a single volume. The authors trace his career from his early training through the years when his foundry became one of the most prolific producers of decorative sculpture in France.
Beyond Le Verrier's own designs, the book also documents the foundry's role in casting work by other sculptors of the period, a practice that expanded its output well beyond a single artist's vision. Photographs throughout show the range of forms the company produced, from table lamps and bookends to standalone bronze figures, giving readers a sense of how thoroughly these objects filled Art Deco interiors. The book also follows the foundry's history past its founder, into the present day operation led by his great-grandson Damien Blanchet.
Author Bénédicte Wattel is recognized as an expert on French decorative arts of the period, and her research here benefited from direct access to the Le Verrier family archives. The result is a reference that traces both the artistic achievement of a single designer and the century long survival of the workshop that carried his name forward. For collectors of French Art Deco sculpture and lighting, this book fills a gap that had existed until its publication.
