Henri-Marius PETIT (1913 - 2009) - Lot 188

Henri-Marius PETIT (1913 - 2009) Cheval blanc Oil on canvas, bears studio label. Circa 1950. Small accidents, tears lower left. 46 x 51 cm Biography: Henri Marius Petit (1913 - 2009) began his career in the 1930s, in a purely Art Deco style. Pupil of Paul Niclausse at the Académie des Beaux-Arts from 1928 to 1933, he prepared for the Prix de Rome competition, which was cancelled by the war. His sculpture Maternité won a silver medal at the 1934 Salon des Artistes Français, before being purchased by the city of Metz, enabling him to win several subsequent competitions for monumental works. The most important of these is a 5-meter-high figure reproduced in gilded plaster in 5 copies (for the 5 continents) for the League of Nations pavilion. It was presented at the New York International Exposition in 1939. Mainly a sculptor, with a number of public commissions to his credit, Henri-Marius Petit also left behind numerous paintings and drawings, as well as a number of sculpted slates (produced between the 60s and 70s), testifying to his multidisciplinary approach. His work is influenced by Antoine Bourdelle (1861 - 1929) and, at the end of his career, by Vadim Androusov (1895 - 1975). Henri Marius Petit was also a professor at the Académie des Beaux-Arts between 1950 and 1983. Original plaster casts are on display at the Musée Paul Landowski in Boulogne-Billancourt, in the Petite Galerie.