Charles Malfray

CHARLES MALFRAY (Orléans, 1887–Dijon, 1940).
"Le verité." c. 1932
Bronze.
No. 1 of 8.
Signed and numbered. Casting mark.
Measurements: 58 x 30 x 30 cm.
This work is characterized by its robust and expressive figurative style, typical of the interwar period in France. It depicts a stylized, muscular human figure in a dynamic, twisted pose, with one foot firmly planted on a raised block or pedestal.
Charles Malfray was a French sculptor. The son of a stonemason from Orléans, he studied at the Orléans School of Fine Arts. At the age of seventeen, he attended the School of Decorative Arts in Paris and the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. However, he rejected the school’s academic teachings and was drawn to the art of Auguste Rodin and Antoine Bourdelle, who were based in Montmartre. Malfray survived World War I after being gassed and fighting in the Battle of Verdun, but he was deeply affected by his experiences. Together with his brother, he created the war memorials for the fallen in Pithiviers (1920) and Orléans (1924), whose modernist style was highly controversial. In 1920, he was awarded the Prix Blumenthal, but due to an illness resulting from the war, he came close to abandoning sculpture. However, in 1931, his friend Aristide Maillol appointed him as his successor as a professor at the Académie Ranson in Paris. In the years that followed, Malfray taught many students in his studio, including Étienne Martin, François Stahly, Nessa Cohen, and Jean Le Moal. A street in Orléans is named Rue Charles Malfray.