French Art Deco sculptor of femininity and maternity.

Pierre Traverse was born in 1892 in Saint-André-de-Cubzac, in the Gironde. He first trained in Limoges before joining the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he acquired a solid academic mastery of the human figure. He exhibited regularly at the great Parisian Salons, where he was quickly rewarded.

His work is dominated by the human figure, particularly women, youth and maternity. Traverse developed a very personal style, classical in anatomical observation but resolutely modern through the simplification of volumes, the search for supple lines and the sobriety of details. His figures, often nude, combine contained power and meditative gentleness.

A demanding craftsman of materials, he worked stone, marble and plaster for unique or monumental pieces, and entrusted his models to leading foundries for their distribution in bronze. Among the foundries with which he collaborated was the Lastele foundry, a Parisian house specialising in Art Deco bronzes, renowned for the quality of its castings and the care given to patinas.

His style is fully part of the Art Deco movement of the interwar period: smooth surfaces, softened articulations, stylised treatment of hair, economy of detail in favour of the reading of masses and movement. The chosen patinas, often very dark brown-green with warmer reflections on the prominent parts, emphasise the sensuality of the modelling and reinforce the intimate atmosphere of his compositions. Pierre Traverse died in 1979.

Literature

• Archives du Salon des Artistes Français, Paris. Livrets de Salon, années 1920–1940.
• BRUNHAMMER, Yvonne, TISE, Suzanne. The Decorative Arts in France, 1900–1942. New York: Rizzoli, 1990.
• LEBON, Élisabeth. Dictionnaire des fondeurs de bronze d’art. France 1890–1950. Perth: Marjon, 2003.