Max Le Verrier (1891 – 1973) - Ashtray - Nénuphar - Patinated bronze

Superb and rare money box (ashtray).
Made by the famous French sculptor Max Le Verrier (1891 – 1973).
Nénuphar model (Water Lily) reproduced and numbered 406 in the green catalog. Signed M. Le Verrier

In very good condition.

Length: 10 cm
Width: 8 cm
Height: 2.5 cm
Weight: 202 g

The photos are part of the description.

Louis Octave Maxime Le Verrier was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine to a Belgian mother and a Parisian father, a goldsmith jeweler. He served in the French army during World War I before studying at the Geneva School of Fine Arts where he met artists and fellow students Pierre Le Faguays and Marcel Bouraine; the three artists became lifelong friends. In 1919, Max Le Verrier opened his own foundry, producing sculptures and decorative objects, lamps, bookends and car mascots.

Drawn to his love of animals in zoos and circuses, he sculpted his first sculpture, the famous pelican, in a style typical of the 1920s. He signed the work under his pseudonym Artus. During this period, Max Le Verrier created many animal models, such as panthers like Baghera, Ouganda and Jungle, an impressive lion, storks, squirrels and horses, most of which were executed in art metal, preferably bronze.

It was in front of the cages of the Jardin des Plantes that Max Le Verrier created his single piece, the monkey with the umbrella, a three-year-old chimpanzee named Boubou. A great friendship arose between the monkey and the artist.
Boubou, restrained by the zoo keeper outside the cage, agreed to pose in exchange for bananas. Moreover, every morning, he looked toward the entrance to wait for the one who would immortalize him.
The sculpture Pluie received a medal at the Salon des Humoristes in 1927.

The Le Verrier workshop worked for the following sculptors:
Pierre Le Faguays, pseudonym Fayral, Marcel Bouraine, pseudonym Derenne & Briand, Raymonde Guerbe, Jules Masson, Charles, Janle, Denis, De Marco and Garcia. These pieces were sold at the workshop at 100 rue du Théâtre in Paris.

Max Le Verrier was a Full Member of the Society of Decorative Artists and exhibited regularly there. He had a stand at the Paris Decorative and Industrial Arts Exhibition (Exposition des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels) at the Grand Palais in 1925, where his stand received a gold medal. His stand at the 1937 Paris International Exposition was awarded a Certificate of Honor.

In 1928, Max Le Verrier sculpted from live model his famous lamp Clarté, representing a nude woman on tiptoe, a glowing globe in her outstretched hands, a centerpiece of his collection. In fact, he needed 3 different models: one for the head, another for the bust, and one for the legs. For the latter part, he asked a dancer from Joséphine Baker's ballets to pose.
This model exists in 4 sizes: Lueur Lumineuse, Lumina, Clarté, Clarté life-size.
Most of Le Verrier’s figurines are young girls with an idealized athleticism of the period.

The Clarté lamp was shown in the Lumières exhibition at the Centre Georges Pompidou from May to August 1985 but also in 1987 in the Made in France exhibition at Harrods in London and in the De main de maître exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris. It was also exhibited at the Hotel Martinez in Cannes in 2000.

Max Le Verrier worked throughout the 1930s. He was arrested in 1944 for his work in the French Resistance, but after the war he continued to sculpt until his death in 1973.

The works of Maxime Le Verrier have a very personal style and reflect a subtle vision.

The artist also devoted himself to adapting his art to a practical decorative purpose and he produced a few pretty lamp specimens and other objects, of which we are providing reproductions here. He rightly believed that modern art should not remain the prerogative of a few privileged people, but should be made accessible to the greatest number and spread over all that is useful to life. This conviction is extremely fair; in his stylization efforts, the artist has managed to apply them with much happiness.