Pierre Charles Lenoir

Pierre Lenoir was a French sculptor and medallist and was one of the Breton sculptors born in the 1880s who studied together at the École régionale des Beaux-Arts in Rennes; Jean Boucher, Louis-Henri Nicot, Armel-Beaufils, Paul Le Goff, Eloi Robert, Albert Bourget and Francis Renaud.

He died on 9 September 1953 and is buried in the Thorel family grave in the Père-Lachaise cemetery.

Lenoir's main works were:- Brittany lost some 240,000 men killed in the 1914-1918 war and every family and every commune was touched by that war, and as was the case throughout France, there was a hunger to mark these losses with some form of memorial.

Those left behind felt it a duty to honour those lost in some tangible form and in November 1919 the association "La Bretagne artistique" sent a circular to all Breton Hôtel de ville promising their cooperation in creating sculptural decoration for the memorials erected.

Here a half-dressed woman smoking a cigarette suggests modernity and a hedonistic approach to life""J'aile parfum de la Paimpolaise/Son église et son grand pardon/J’aime surtout la Paimpolaise/Qui m’attend au pays breton"