Ferdinand Faivre was a French sculptor whose work is characterised in particular by the Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...

 style.

Life and work

Marie Antoine Ferdinand Faivre was born in Marseille

Marseille

Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...

 on 8 October 1860 and died on 19 August 1937. His birth date is occasionally given as 1867 in confusion with Abel Faivre (1867-45), the Lyon-born painter and illustrator. He studied sculpture at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris under P.J.Cavelier, Louis-Ernest Barrias

Louis-Ernest Barrias

Louis-Ernest Barrias was a French sculptor of the Beaux-Arts school.He was born in Paris into a family of artists. His father was a porcelain-painter, and his older brother Félix-Joseph Barrias a well-known painter...

 and André Allar, and frequently exhibited his work at the Salon des Artistes Français between 1882 and 1924, winning several awards. His work spanned designs for busts, statuettes and bas relief panels, for which he obtained many public commissions. These included decorative groups for the Zurich

Zürich

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

 Bank, for the Cairo Museum, the facade

Facade

A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....

 of the Royal Automobile Club

Royal Automobile Club

The Royal Automobile Club is a private club and is not to be confused with RAC plc, a motorists' organisation, which it formerly owned.It has two club houses, one in London at 89-91 Pall Mall, and the other in the countryside at Woodcote Park, Surrey, next to the City of London Freemen's School...

 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and many buildings in Paris; among the latter was a figure of Abundance for the Ritz

Hôtel Ritz Paris

The Hôtel Ritz is a grand palatial hotel in the heart of Paris, the 1st arrondissement. It overlooks the octagonal border of the Place Vendôme at number 15...

. His native Marseilles has little of his work except for a Baroque Virgin and Child at the corner of the Rue Fontange and the Rue Blanqui. In the field of the applied arts, many of his designs were executed for the Sèvres

Manufacture nationale de Sèvres

The manufacture nationale de Sèvres is a Frit porcelain porcelain tendre factory at Sèvres, France. Formerly a royal, then an imperial factory, the facility is now run by the Ministry of Culture.-Brief history:...

 and Émile Muller potteries, and for the fine art bronze founders Victor Thiébaut, Ferdinand Barbedienne and Siot-Decauville. He was later involved in the restoration of the Château de Versailles.