Louis Henri Nicot

Louis Henri Nicot (12 February 1878 – 12 July 1944) was a French sculptor.
Louis-Henri Nicot was born in Rennes on 12 February 1878. His father was a builder. He attended the Rennes École des Murs and in 1886 was enrolled at the Lycée de Rennes, He then joined the École des Beaux-Arts in Rennes and was there for three years. His schooling was interrupted in 1899 when he was called up for military service and joined the 41st Infantry regiment as a "soldat de 2e classe". However being stationed at the Rennes' St Georges barracks meant that he could continue to call in at the École des Beaux-Arts. In November 1902 his term of service over, he was put on the reserve list. He left the army with the rank of sergeant. He now applied to join the Ếcole nationale des Beaux-arts in Paris. His time at the Rennes art school had been a great success and he had studied alongside such Breton sculptors as Pierre Lenoir, Éloi Emile Robert, Émile Jean Armel Beaufils, Emmanuel Guérin, Francis Renaud (sculptor), Albert Bourget and Jean Boucher (artist).
He set off for Paris in April 1899 but was not immediately accepted by the Ếcole nationale des Beaux-Arts and received only "temporary" status in November 1900, November 1901 and May 1902. Once a permanent student at the school, he tried unsuccessfully for the "Prix de Rome" in 1906 and 1908 but did get third prize in the school's "trois-arts" competition and received several other medals and prizes. The Ếcole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris hold ex-pupils works in their archives and the collection includes a 1906 Nicot design which was his entry for the "Figure dessinée d'après l'antique" competition (Bridan prize) held each year by the school. His work "Fauna Borghèse" won the second prize.
On 14 September 1909, one year after leaving the Ếcole des Beaux-arts, he married Jeanne-marie Le gallais at the mairie of Paris' 15e arrondissement and the birth of daughters Monique in 1912 and Yves in 1914 increased the need for Nicot to earn money from his sculpture and during the prewar years he executed many sculptural decorations for buildings, more often than not carving directly into the stone "in situ", and he executed such work in the Rue Frémiet in Passy and the Paris streets of Rue des Eaux, la Rue Renouard, la Rue Fournier, the Avenue Choisy and Avenue Émile-Zola. Most of the decoration involved flowers or animals. He also worked on the decoration of Reims's Palais de justice and the Hôtels de ville of Moÿ-de-l'Aisne and Pont-Sainte-Maxence and the churches of Moÿ-de-l'Aisne and Woirel as well as the "Salle d’honneur" at the Château de Rocheux.
Nicot received his mobilization papers on 2 August 1914 and joined the 2nd Aviation group. He worked as a photographer serving in the General Reserve and in June 1915 was part of F40 squadron. His health began to deteriorate and he suffered from a chronique onset of kidney stones and in May 1917 was hospitalised in Bar-le-Duc, then Charolles and Mâcon. Finally in April 1918 he was back home.
Nicot's principal works were the following.
Brittany lost some 240,000 men killed in the 1914–1918 war and every family and every commune was touched by that war and as was the case throughout France there was a hunger to mark these losses with some form of memorial. Those left behind felt it a duty to honour those lost in some tangible form and in November 1919, the association "La Bretagne artistique" sent a circular to all Breton Hôtel de ville promising their cooperation in creating sculptural decoration for any of the memorials erected. Nicot was involved in the following war memorials:
Apart from the above war memorials, Nicot worked on the following:
Apart from his sculptures, Nicot created many ceramic figurines ("petites céramiques bretonnes"), working with the famous Henriot factory (La faïencerie Henriot-Quimpe) and with FAB (Faïencerie d’Art Breton). Below, some of Nicot's best known works are listed. Often the preparatory work matched that for a sculpture, a drawing, a model, a maquette, etc. Then the work could be worked up to a full-sized sculpture or a small ceramic figurine.
Introduced to the Henriot factory in 1924 by Mathurin Méheut. His work with Henriot included:-
Nicot was commissioned to provide sculptural decoration for several tombs, including those detailed below.
For an exhibition organised in 1903 by the "Association artistique de Bretagne", Nicot exhibited a marble medallion depicting his uncle, the painter J.B. Cacheux, and a bust of the Rennes painter C. Nitsch, and in the years to follow, Nicot was to create medallion portraits of many artists and contemporaries. These include the designer Benjamin Rabier, the architect Jules Longuet, the aviator Alfred Leblanc, the sculptors Florenza and Lavieuville, Sir John Woodyatt, Bertrand d’Aramon, Edmond Teulet, Achille Philip, Admiral Guépratte, Louis Beaufrère, Jules Henriot, the Marquis de l'marquis de l'Estour-Beillon, Eugène Le mouël, Léon Berthaut and Auguste Dupouy, and Lucien Daniel.