Raymond Delamarre
The composition "Suzanne au bain" exhibited in 1922 at the Salon des Artistes Français is a good illustration of Delamarre's work at this time.
From 1961 to 1973, he managed the business of the "Art Sacré" studios in Paris' place de Furstenberg, working with Maurice Denis and Georges Desvallières.
When the Villa Médicis reopened after the war their finances were in a poor state and in 1920 they were not able to organize the traditional exhibition, which showed works completed by students and deemed suitable to be sent to Paris.
[5] The architect Emile Boursier commissioned Delamarre to execute a relief for this art déco style building in Paris' rue Chomel, which contained the offices of the Compagnie anonyme française d’assurances who traded under the name ‘La Populaire".
It was in 1962 that Mathon commissioned Delamarre to create sculptural decoration for the "Centre des Chèques Postaux" in Dijon and the Brest Lycée de Kerichen.
Delamarre's composition "Pour que l’homme ne soit pas victime des forces qu’il a déchaînées" is based on the story of Prometheus.
He chose to design a wooden replica of a church which would incorporate architectural styles from all the regions where French catholic missionaries were at work and Tournon's chapel had the look of a pagoda, his bell-tower was reminiscent of the mosques of Black Africa and its annexes were covered in the green tuiles[check spelling] of Maghreb.
Such was Tournon's success that in 1932 he was commissioned to build an actual church in Epinay-sur-Seine to be called "Notre-Dame-des-Missions", this in reinforced concrete and brick and replicating where possible the structure made for the colonial exhibition.
A huge number of sculptors, artists, and craftsmen were used by Tournon in the church's decoration including Georges Ballot, Robert Barriot, Elisabeth Branly, Maurice Denis, George Desvallières, Robert-Albert Génico, Jean Hébert-Stevens, Marguerite Hure, Paul de Laboulaye, Henri de Maistre, Henri Marret, Pauline Peugniez, Charles Plessard, Valentine Reyre, André Rinuy, Anne-Marie Roux- Colas, Carlo Sarrabezolles, Lucien Simon, Raymond Virac and Roger Villers (Maurice Denis and George Desvallières were the founders in 1919 of the "Ateliers de l’art sacré").
For this prestigious exhibition, Delamarre created a relief in plaster entitled "La Ville Lumière", this for the main façade of the Paris pavilion which was designed by the architect Léon Azéma.
The church is rich in sculpture with works not only by Delamarre but by H. Bouchard, H. Charlier, M. Real del Sarte, G. Serraz, R. de Villiers and Castex.
The bell tower is designed in the shape a minaret and the whole facade is covered in blue and white ceramic tiles in a pattern created by Lorymi and Raymond Virac, using a new type of brickwork developed in 1930 by Marguerite Huré.
Many painters, sculptors and glassworkers participated in the decoration of the inside of the church; most of these artists came from the studios of "Sacred art" founded by Maurice Denis, who had designed the windows for the nearby Notre-Dame du Raincy, and of George Desvallières.
It was important that as a group the artists achieved unity of style, and the results of their collaboration comprise one of the most outstanding examples of French ecclesiastical decoration of the 1930s.
A panel showing the Christianization of southern Algeria and of the Sahara Desert by Charles de Foucauld was created for the interior by Georges Desvallières.
A series of murals on the right side of the church building were painted by Raymond Virac, Lucien Simon, and Robert-Albert Génicot; these celebrate the evangelical work done in Indochina and India by Francis Xavier and that done in Japan by Alphonsus Navarette.
Maurice Denis was the most famous artist to contribute to this series; he was aided by Henri-Justin Marret, Valentine Reyre, Paul de Laboulaye, and Georges Ballot.
Positions held by Jonnart included the presidency in 1907 of the Suez Canal Company and in 1911 he was Minister for Foreign Affairs and French Ambassador to the Vatican from 1921 to 1923.
The Euville stone monument was erected after a public subscription was organised by Maurice Sénart, president of the "Société des Admirateurs du père Daniel Brottier".
The dedication on the monument is a line from Polyphème "Belle mer écumeuse et bleue où je suis né"[5][31] Eugène Étienne (15 December 1844 – 13 May 1921) was a French politician born in Oran, Algeria.
[38] From 1949 to 1956 Delamarre worked on an outdoor statue of St Joseph, a "Vierge" and the "chemin de croix" (The stations of the Cross) located near the church in Orival near Elbeuf.
Delamarre, an army veteran himself, and decorated with the Croix de Guerre, worked on four war memorials, those at Brest, Pontault-Combault and at Saint-Martin-de-Ré and that in Rome for the "Séminaire français".
Interesting to note that Delamarre's parents lived in the commune[5][46] In the centre of the memorial, which is carved from Lavoux stone, is a rectangular panel on which the names of the men of Saint-Martin-de-Ré who died in the 1914–18 war are listed.
The "Séminaire Pontifical Français" in Rome was a training school for French priests founded in 1853 by Father Louis-Marie Banazer de Lannurien, a follower of François Libermann.
At the very top of the memorial and under an arch, two peacocks in profile face towards a cross, and below two angels kneel in prayer on either side of a list of the names of the men honoured.
The monument celebrated the defence of the Suez Canal in 1915 by a force of British, Egyptian, French and Italian troops who repulsed an attack by the Turkish army.
Delamarre's two winged angels carry flaming torches and stand as "gardienne des destinées du pays" and can be seen by all ships passing through the canal.
With Delamarre travelling to Egypt on many occasions in these five years, he engaged a team of "praticiens" to live "in situ" and a huge wooden scaffolding was erected on the site to facilitate their work.
Delamarre's two statues were entitled "L'Intelligence Sereine" and "La Force Sévère’ and models of both, scaled down to 1/10 of their actual size, can be seen in the Musée des Années 30 (Espace Landowski) at Boulogne- Billancourt.
In 1924, Delamarre worked with the architect Michel Roux Spitz and fellow sculptor Marcel Renard on the family tomb for the Vetters in the Croix-Rousse cemetery in Lyon.
