Nederlands
Edouard-Marcel Sandoz (1881-1971)
The Cat Cabinet has two remarkable sculptures by Edouard-Marcel Sandoz: the yellow sleeping cat and the wooden sculpture of a stately cat. The yellow statue is probably from the period when Sandoz worked with porcelain due to the scarcity of stone and bronze.
Sandoz was born in Basel in 1881. He spent three years studying at the L’Ecole de Industrial Arts in Geneva, after which he moved to Paris to learn from sculptor Antonin Mercie and painter Ferdinand Cormon at the Ecole d’Beaux-Arts. Due to the scarcity of materials during the first World War, Sandoz began working with porcelain and this was the beginning of a thirty year long collaboration with Haviland Limoge Company. This collaboration brought to life many stylistic sculptures of animals. Dogs, rabbits, fish and of course cats were all given form with clearly colored, glazed finishes.
Sandoz had a good knowledge of materials, authority of traditional techniques and always studied his subject thoroughly. Yet he remained constantly in search of new tools to make sculptures with. Ceramics, porcelain, stone and wood were his main materials. Over the course of his long career he developed his own style, clearly influenced by the Art Nouveau period. His love of animals is also evident in his work.
For more than thirty years Sandoz was chairman of the Baron Taylor Association. He also directed the Charitable Society for Children of Artists and supported the forming of the City des Arts in Paris. His talent was acknowledged and rewarded when he was chosen as a member of the Academy of Fine Arts and received the title of Commander of Ordre National de la Legion d’Honneur and the Order of Arts and Letters. An impressive name in the collection of the Cat Cabinet.