Sculpture by Demetre Chiparus (Romania, France)

Romanian-born Demetre Chiparus (1888 – 1950) studied in Italy from 1909 with Raffaello Romanelli and from 1912 in Paris under Antonin Mercie and Jean Boucher and exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Francais sporadically from 1914 to 1928. Chiparus developed the technique of chryselephantine bronze, (usually a bronze body with ivory face, hands and feet), pioneered in Belgium at the turn of the century, and gave it its peculiar Art Deco character. He initially produced numerous figures and small groups of children, principally girls, their features carved in ivory set into the bronze, gilded and enamelled. In his later period from the 1920s, as he became more famous, his most notable output were depictions of various dancers in the Art Deco style, leading to huge commercial success.