LAURENS, HENRI

born Feb. 18, 1885, Paris, Fr. died May 8, 1954, Paris principal French sculptor of the Cubist movement in art. Laurens worked as a stonemason and decorator before he became a sculptor. He was influenced by Auguste Rodin and became a friend of Georges Braque in 1911. His early sculptures were painted in colours that emphasized their various planes in a Cubist manner. In the 1920s he began producing numerous works on marine themes, particularly nudes and sirens, in marble and bronze. Laurens had an intense interest in the human form but interpreted it from a Cubist and somewhat Expressionist perspective, as in The Farewell (1940). His work shows a consistent sensual and poetic concern, and the influence of his contemporary Aristide Maillol is evident in many pieces.