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

Max LE VERRIER (1906-1982) - Ashtray "Char Romain" - Gilded bronze - Model No. 637 in the red catalogue.

A remarkable ornamental work on the chassis of the chariot (scrollwork and volutes), a wheel with finely chased spokes, and a tiller elegantly finished with a ram’s head.

This object has been carefully cleaned by the prestigious Mertens Workshops in Brussels, restoring the alloy to its original golden shine while preserving the details of the sculpture.
Superb display condition. The finish is even and highlights the relief of the decorations.

Length: 21 cm
Width: 11 cm
Height: 12 cm
Weight: 1089 g

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 jeweler- goldsmith. He served in the French army during World War I before studying at the Geneva School of Fine Arts, where he met artists and classmates Pierre Le Faguays and Marcel Bouraine; the three artists became life-long 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 at zoos and circuses, he sculpted his first work, the famous pelican, in a style typical of the 1925 period. He signed the work under his pseudonym Artus. During this period, Max Le Verrier created numerous animal models, for example panthers such as Baghera, Ouganda and Jungle, a magnificent 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-moneky work with an umbrella, a three-year-old chimpanzee named Boubou. A great friendship sprang up between the monkey and the artist.
Boubou, held by the zoo guard outside the cage, agreed to pose in exchange for bananas. Moreover, every morning he looked toward the entrance to await the one who would immortalize him.
The sculpture Rain 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, Janel, Denis, De Marco and Garcia. These pieces were sold from the workshop at 100 rue du Théâtre in Paris.

Max Le Verrier was a Full Member of the Society of Decorative Artists and exhibited there regularly. He had a stand at the Paris Exposition des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels in 1925 at the Grand Palais, where his stand received a gold medal. His stand at the 1937 Exposition internationale de Paris was awarded an honorable mention.

In 1928, Max Le Verrier sculpted from live model his famous lamp Clarté, depicting a nude woman on tiptoe, a glowing globe in her outstretched hands, a centerpiece of his collection. In fact, he needed three different models: one for the head, another for the chest, and a third for the legs. For this last part, he had a dancer from Joséphine Baker’s ballets pose.
This model exists in 4 sizes: Lueur Lumineuse, Lumina, Clarté, and Clarté grandeur nature.
Most of Le Verrier’s figures are young girls with a similarly idealized athleticism.

The Clarté lamp was presented 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 shown at the Hôtel 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 are of a very personal style and bear witness to a subtle vision.

The artist also applied himself to adapting his art to a practical decorative purpose and produced some pretty examples of lamps and other objects, of which we offer reproductions here. He rightly believed that modern art should not remain the prerogative of a few privileged individuals, but should be made accessible to the greatest number and spread to all things useful to life. This view is exceedingly fair; in his stylization explorations, the artist has proven able to apply them with great success.