Ferdinand Faivre (1860–1937) was a French sculptor whose work is often characterised by the

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

style.

Life and work

Marie Antoine Ferdinand Faivre was born in Marseille on 8 October 1860 and died on 19 August 1937. He studied sculpture at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris under P.J.Cavelier, Louis-Ernest Barrias and André Allar, and frequently exhibited his work at the Salon des Artistes Français between 1882 and 1924, winning several awards. His work spanned designs for busts, statuettes and

bas relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

panels, for which he obtained many public commissions. These included decorative groups for the Zurich Bank, for the Cairo Museum, the facade of the Royal Automobile Club in London and many buildings in Paris; among the latter was a figure of Abundance for the

Ritz Ritz or The Ritz may refer to: Facilities and structures Hotels * The Ritz Hotel, London, a hotel in London, England * Hôtel Ritz Paris, a hotel in Paris, France * Hotel Ritz (Madrid), a hotel in Madrid, Spain * Hotel Ritz (Lisbon), a hotel in ...

and the 1906 bas reliefs of the seasons for Madame Hériot's town-house. His native Marseilles has little of his work except for a Baroque Virgin and Child at the corner of the Rue Fontange and the Rue Blanqui. Among the influences on him at the start of the 20th century was Art Nouveau, as can be seen in the sinuous lines of his gilt-bronze jardinière, modelled with nudes and mermaids emerging from waves, of 1900, or of the marble statue of

Jean de la Fontaine Jean de La Fontaine (, , ; 8 July 162113 April 1695) was a French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his ''Fables'', which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Euro ...

's " The cat changed into a woman" of 1906 that he later cast in bronze. There is also the motif of the Sphinx which was a popular subject for the

Symboliste Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...

generation. In the field of the applied arts, many of his designs were executed for the Sèvres and Émile Muller potteries, and for the fine art bronze founders Victor Thiébaut, Ferdinand Barbedienne and Siot-Decauville. He was later involved in the restoration of the Château de Versailles.Marseilles Sculptée
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Faivre, Ferdinand 1860 births 1937 deaths Sculptors from Marseille Egyptian Museum Art Nouveau sculptors 20th-century French sculptors 19th-century French sculptors French male sculptors 19th-century French male artists