Emile Guillaume

EMILE GUILLAUME (Paris, 1867–1954).
"La deliverance."
Bronze. Barbedienne Foundry.
Signed.
Measurements: 37 cm (height).

The son of a Parisian shoemaker, he received his artistic training at the École des Arts Décoratifs and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he studied under great masters such as Jules Cavelier, Aimé Millet, and Louis-Ernest Barrias. Throughout his career, he was actively involved in political and intellectual life, forming a close friendship with the statesman Aristide Briand. Tragically, the sculptor went blind in 1941, thirteen years before his death.
His work, strongly humanistic and allegorical in nature, frequently depicted the suffering, labor, and civic virtues of his time. *La Délivrance* (1919) is his most famous sculpture: a bronze female nude symbolizing the Allied victory at the Battle of the Marne (1914). Replicas of this work adorn various cities that suffered heavy losses during World War I in France, Belgium, and London.