Pompon, François

Pompon, François (1855–1933). French sculptor, born at Saulieu, near Dijon, the son of a carpenter. He studied briefly at the École des Beaux-Arts in Dijon, but his main training was as a stonemason, and after settling in Paris in 1894 he worked as an assistant for various sculptors (including Rodin) for the next 20 years. Although he later had several commissions for public monuments, it was not until the last decade of his career that he achieved genuine recognition. This came with his Polar Bear (Pompidou Centre, Paris), which scored a great success at the 1922 Salon d'Automne and at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (see ART DECO) in 1925. It was so popular that it was reproduced in a variety of forms (small pottery versions sold in large numbers), and Pompon was belatedly hailed as the greatest animal sculptor since Antoine Barye (1796–1875). He was acclaimed not only for the excellence of his craftsmanship, but also for his skill in rendering the essential form of animals with great economy of means. After Pompon's death his studio was reconstructed in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, and after the Second World War its contents were distributed to various museums, including the Musée Regional de Saulieu and the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Dijon. In 1994 the latter museum held a major exhibition of Pompon's work, which was also shown at the Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Reviewing this exhibition in the Burlington Magazine (November 1994), Patrick Elliott wrote: ‘Pompon was probably the most influential animal sculptor of the 20th century and was among the first modern sculptors to draw direct inspiration from Egyptian, Gallo-Roman and Oriental art, types which profoundly affected the genesis of early avant-garde sculpture … However, to hail him as a missing link in the formation of modern sculpture would be to misunderstand his art and even do him a disservice. He was a 19th-century sculptor who came to terms with the modern world rather than a 20th-century sculptor who opened new doors.’