Jean Cardot (20 July 1930 – 13 October 2020) was a French sculptor, born in

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; frp, Sant-Etiève; oc, Sant Estève, ) is a city and the prefecture of the Loire department in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Saint-Étienne is the t ...

, France. He is known for his monumental sculptures that depict political figures and that are designed to complement particular architectural settings (e.g. museums, promenades, public squares).

Career

From 1941 to 1956, Jean Cardot attended, first, the School of Fine Arts ( École de Beaux-Arts) in Saint-Étienne, then that of Lyon, and finally the National School of Fine Arts in Paris ( École de Beaux-Arts de Paris) in the workshops of

Marcel Gaumont Marcel Gaumont was a French sculptor born on 27 January 1880 in Tours. He died in Paris on 20 November 1962. Biography Gaumont was a pupil at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris and studied under Louis-Ernest Barrias ...

and

Alfred Janniot Alfred Auguste Janniot (13 June 1889 – 18 July 1969) was a French Art Deco sculptor most active in the 1930s. Biography Janniot was educated at the École des Beaux-Arts, a pupil of Jean Antoine Injalbert, and was the winner of the 1919 Pr ...

. After obtaining a second

Grand Prix de Rome The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...

in 1956, he stayed at the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid from 1957 to 1959. In 1961, Cardot was awarded the Prix Antoine Bourdelle for sculpture and accepted the post of professor at the School of Fine Arts in Lyon. He resigned from this post in 1964 in order to pursue a career as a full time sculptor. It is during this period that he received his first public commissions. In 1974, he was named head of the workshop on ‘taille directe’ (direct chiseling onto a raw material) at the School of Fine Arts of Paris . In 1989, Cardot received the Prix Paul Baudry of the Taylor Foundation. He was elected a member of the

Académie des Beaux-Arts An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

on 9 November 1983 and president in 1992 and 1997. Jean Cardot is known for his monumental works that are closely tied to their architectural setting. In 1962, he produced the Madonna of Bouthéon, on the occasion of the centenary of the church Saint Laurent in

Andrézieux-Bouthéon Andrézieux-Bouthéon (; frp, link=no, Andrèsiô-Botion) is a commune of the Loire department in central France. It lies on the right bank of the river Loire, at its confluence with the river Furan. Population Sights * Le Château Bouthéon ...

, France. In 1967, he sculpted the Dying Bull (''Taureau mourant''), a statue that he originally executed in clay and later recast in bronze, for a high school in Saint-Étienne. In 1969, his granite fountain sculpture was placed in the university hospital center of Saint-Étienne. In 1973-1975, his Monument to the Resistance and the Deportation of the Val-de Marne, in cast aluminum, chosen by competition, was erected in

Créteil Créteil () is a commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, Île-de-France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Créteil is the ''préfecture'' (capital) of the Val-de-Marne department as well as the seat of the Arrondissement of Cré ...

. In 1979, he also produced a sculpture representing a flock of sheep, exhibited in front of the

Cattenom nuclear power plant The Cattenom Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant located in Grand Est in the Cattenom commune, France, on the Moselle River between Thionville (7 km upstream) and Trier (48 km downstream). It is close to the city of Luxembour ...

in Moselle. Large public commissions occupied an essential place in Cardot’s work, much of which focused on monumental effigies of major political figures. He is best known for his statues in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

of Sir Winston Churchill, 1998, on the

Right Bank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography, as follows. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrai ...

of the

Seine ) , mouth_location = Le Havre/Honfleur , mouth_coordinates = , mouth_elevation = , progression = , river_system = Seine basin , basin_size = , tributaries_left = Yonne, Loing, Eure, Risle , tributarie ...

in front of the

Petit Palais The Petit Palais (; en, Small Palace) is an art museum in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. Built for the 1900 Exposition Universelle ("universal exhibition"), it now houses the City of Paris Museum of Fine Arts (''Musée des beaux-arts ...

and on Avenue Winston Churchill; of General

Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...

2000 on the Champs-Elysées in front of the

Grand Palais The Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées ( en, Great Palace of the Elysian Fields), commonly known as the Grand Palais (English: Great Palace), is a historic site, exhibition hall and museum complex located at the Champs-Élysées in the 8th arro ...

; and of

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...

2006 on the

Left Bank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography, as follows. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrai ...

of the Seine, facing the

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) ( en, Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art ...

and the

Musée de la Légion d'Honneur The Musée national de la Légion d'honneur et des ordres de chevalerie (French language, French for "National museum of the Legion of Honour and of orders of chivalry") is a French national museum of orders of merit and orders of chivalry. It i ...

, by the Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor, formerly

Pont de Solférino Pont, meaning "bridge" in French, may refer to: Places France * Pont, Côte-d'Or, in the Côte-d'Or ''département'' * Pont-Bellanger, in the Calvados ''département'' * Pont-d'Ouilly, in the Calvados ''département'' * Pont-Farcy, in the Calva ...

Gallery

File:Statues of Winston Churchill in Paris 1.jpg, Statue of Winston Churchill, 8th district, Paris File:Pomnik de Gaulle`a.jpg, Statue of Charles de Gaulle, on the Champs-Élysées, Paris File:Thomas Jefferson, Quai Anatole France, Paris May 2010.jpg, Statue of Thomas Jefferson, on the Quai Anatole France, Paris File:Jaques Chaban Delmas Jean Cardot.jpg, Statue of Jacques Chaban Delmas, Bordeaux File:Luxclairefontaine.JPG, Statue of the Grand Duchess Charlotte on the place Clairefontaine in Luxembourg

References

External links

*
Personal site of the artist
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cardot, Jean 1930 births 2020 deaths 20th-century French sculptors French male sculptors 21st-century French sculptors 21st-century French male artists Artists from Saint-Étienne Members of the Académie des beaux-arts