Henri Lagriffoul

Lagriffoul assisted Paul Landowski with the statue of Christ the Redeemer at Corcovado in Rio.

Lagriffoul was born in Paris in 1907. His father ran a goldsmith workshop.[4] He was admitted to the studio of sculptors Jules Coutan and Paul Landowski at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1924 to 1925. Lagriffoul assisted Landowski with the statue of Christ the Redeemer at Corcovado, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil between 1926 and 1931.[5] He won the Prix de Rome for sculpture in 1932 and spent three years at the Villa Médicis in Rome.[5]

Lagriffoul was appointed professor at the École des Beaux-arts, Paris in 1944.[5] He became a member of the advisory council for the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres. He made four sculpture for Sèvres between 1949 and 1955, including a table centerpiece and two ornamented vases.[4] From 1959 he was professor of sculpture at the École polytechnique.[5] He died in 1981.[4]

Chavignon's war memorial has sculptures by Lagriffoul from 1933. There are two bas-reliefs on the monument, one depicting a soldier holding an antique sword and the other a woman carrying her child and a sheaf of wheat.[6] A sculpture by Lagriffoul decorates the north facade of the Collège mixte de Lens, avenue Raoul-Brique, Pas-de-Calais, made in August–September 1958.[7] He created a sculpture representing deportees to concentration and extermination camps for the Mémorial de la France combattante in Mont-Valérien, inaugurated in 1960. It depicts emaciated hands trying to pull away the barbed wire that lacerates a tortured heart.[8] He created the head of "Marianne" that appeared on coins of 5, 10, 20 and 50 centimes from 1962 to 1966.[7]

Some other major works include:[9]

• Badge of the best French worker (1932)
• The Vocation of Joan of Arc, Sainte Jeanne d’Arc Church, Gennevilliers, Hauts-de-Seine (1945)
• Autumn, Présidence du Conseil, Hôtel Montalivet, Paris (1952)
• Virgin and Child, Rouen Cathedral, Seine-Maritime (1956)
• Bas-relief, Chambre of Commerce, Le Havre, Seine-Maritime (1957)
• Monument to the dead of Vimoutiers, Orne (1958)

20 French Centime with Marianne on Obverse.
Obverse: Marianne wearing the Phrygian cap of liberty.	Reverse: Face value and French motto: "Liberté, égalité, fraternité".
Engraved by Chavignon, coin was minted from 1962 to 2001.

Lagriffoul received the following awards:[5]

• Diplôme d’honneur at the Exposition d’Anvers (Belgium), 1930
• Gold medal at the Exposition coloniale, 1931
• Premier Grand Prix de Rome for sculpture, 1932
• Gold medal at the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques, 1937
• Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur
• Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres

• Lagriffoul, Henri (1950). Conseils pratiques sur la sculpture. Paris: Editions S. Bornemann.