Spring - Alfred JANNIOT (1889-1969)

Also named « Two young girls running »

Polychrom terra cotta, enhanced with gold
raised on its original plaster base
titled « Printemps » to the front of the base
with a mention on the base : "André Dufour, de la part de Horace Billat, Jean Devaux, Mario Lebel, François Lepage, Cinquantenaire de la sous-colle, 1927-1977".

France
circa 1930
total height 36 cm
width of the base 25 cm

This is a genuine work made by the artist during his lifetime.
Certificat made by Edwige Anne Demeurisse, expert for Janniot's work and universal legatee of the artist.

Biography :
Alfred Janniot (1889-1969) was a French sculptor. A pupil of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Alfred Janniot was part of the generation of fire artists, in connection with the Great War. He returned from the First World War in 1919 and won first prize in Rome, which he shared with sculptor Raymond Delamarre. He was a professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Alfred Janniot was the author of a considerable monumental work. Friend of Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann and the painter Louis Bouquet, Janniot participated in the International Exhibition of "Arts décoratifs et industriels modernes" of 1925, and realized for the Pavilion Ruhlmann a group of three women in tribute to Jean Goujon. In 1927, Janniot participated in the decoration of the liner "Ile de France".

From 1928 to 1931 Alfred Janniot carved the great bas-relief of stone on the facade of the museum of the colonies, built for the 1931 Colonial Exhibition. Janniot was found in the United States in 1934, with his façade for the Maison de France, at the Rockefeller Center in New York. In 1935, it was this time the liner "Normandy" which had the honors of the sculptor for his decoration. He also decorated two large bas-reliefs behind the Palais de Tokyo built in 1937, near the fountain. His work is also presented in Nice, where he created with the architect Roger Séassal the great monument to the dead Art Deco style on the Corniche and the fountain of the sun of the Place Masséna. New York was his destination again in 1939, as Janniot exhibited a bronze woman's torso at the Pavillon de France on the occasion of the Universal Exhibition. He also carved the fresco decorating the pediment of the post office of the city of Puteaux in 1934, the staircase of honor being entrusted to Louis Bouquet. In Bordeaux he made in 1937 reliefs on the facade of the Labor Exchange. He was finally the author of the statue which was on the level of the Department of Prints of the National Library of France.