French Art Deco sculptor, wounded and decorated combatant, creator of luminous feminine figures and sober commemorative monuments.

Gilbert Privat was born on 27 May 1892 in Toulouse, into a family of craftsmen: his father was a wood sculptor. After initial apprenticeship in his father’s studio, he enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse, then at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he became a student of Jules Coutan in the sculpture section.

Mobilised during the First World War, he was wounded four times, decorated with the Médaille militaire and the Croix de guerre 1914–1918. On returning to civilian life, he settled in the 14th arrondissement of Paris. In 1921, he won the second Grand Prix de Rome; he received the silver medal of the Prix de Rome in 1925, the gold medal at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1926, as well as the gold medal of the Société des Arts, des Sciences et des Lettres and the silver medal of the City of Paris.

His style, imbued with Art Deco, earned him immediate recognition at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in 1925. His feminine figures, nude, allegorical, often associated with doves or floral garlands, are distinguished by purified and synthetic volumes, polished surfaces and supple lines characteristic of his finest Art Deco. Very eclectic in his materials, he worked plaster, clay, bronze, stone, marble in direct carving, and was particularly fond of slate.

He received several commissions for commemorative monuments following the two World Wars, still visible today. He was appointed Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur in 1948. His works are preserved in several public institutions, notably the museums of Lourdes, Mont-de-Marsan, Périgueux, Toulouse, Roubaix and the Musée des Années Trente in Boulogne-Billancourt. A few months before his death in Soulac-sur-Mer in 1969, Gilbert Privat was still working in his studio.