CAMILLE ALAPHILIPPE (Tours, 1874-Algeria, 1934). "Ballerina". Bronze. Signed on the bottom.

CAMILLE ALAPHILIPPE (Tours, 1874-Algeria, 1934).
"Ballerina".
Bronze.
Signed on the lower part.
Measurements: 73 cm. total; 58 cm. figure + 14 cm. base.
Ornamental sculpture in round bulk, made in bronze, in the shape of a beautiful woman with a stylised but naturalistic anatomy, executing a dynamic dance step, standing on one foot, with one leg raised, her body inclined and holding two maces between her stretched arms. It is realistic in its modelling but rigorous and geometric in its composition, perfectly reflecting the aesthetic basis of Art Deco.
Camille Alaphilippe, a French sculptor, was a pupil of Laurens and Barrias at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris. At the age of 24, in 1889, he won the first Grand Prix de Rome for sculpture with a work entitled "Cain after the Death of Abel". He worked with the ceramists Bigot and Lavirotte on architectural decorations. The marble entitled "Les mystères douloureux", a sculptural group in a park in Tours, dates from 1905. Also in Tours, he was the author of a terracotta relief which adorns the façade of the Basilica of Saint Martin. The sculpture entitled le Premier miroir dates from 1908. This work is kept in the plant garden in Nantes. He travelled to Algeria, where in the 1920s he was in charge of the sculpture section of the Algiers School of Fine Arts, teaching the sculptor André Greck. He created the monument in memory of Raffi, who was the former mayor of the city of Algiers, and monuments dedicated to the victims of the First World War in several towns in Algeria. He is the author of the monument to the dead of Philippeville (Skikda) transferred in 1969 to Toulouse.