Rare Ex-voto Holder By Louis Henri Nicot - Brittany

Marcel Guillard Manufacture in Boulogne-Billancourt. Polychrome earthenware, circa 1930. The face and hands are treated in a terracotta style. Lack of cover on the rear of the sail of the restored boat. Height: 49 cm.

This very rare work is inspired by a sketch dating from 1928 made in Cancale: "Young cabin boy getting ready to go fishing". Nicot, deciding to make a sculpture of it, asked his son Yves to pose in a sailor's outfit.

It represents a young sailor saved following a shipwreck, who thanks the Virgin by offering her an ex-voto boat.

Louis-Henri Nicot (1878-1944). Born in 1878, he followed his artistic education at the Beaux Arts in Rennes with Coquelin, Lenoir, Ronsin then in Paris with Falguière, Mercié, Peter. During these years of very academic teaching, the artist was frequently honored. He completed his studies in 1909. Very quickly the Breton theme appeared in his work. After the 14-18 war Nicot became one of the major Breton sculptors. From the outset, he does not rank among the artists who convey the greatest modernism. He created many war memorials in Brittany: Pleurtuit 1920, Guéméné-Penfao 1921, Montfort-sur-Meu 1923. But also outside Brittany such as the Monument to the Army of Occupation of the Rhine located in Mainz. In 1922, he became a professor at the school of arts applied to industry. His collaboration with the Henriot Manufacture took place through Mathurin Méheut, a long-time acquaintance, and began in 1924. He created for them extremely local subjects which played on the permanence of a certain stiff image of Brittany, unless that it is not an ethnographic approach, as the precision of the costumes is obvious. Thanks to Nicot, Brittany regained its reassuring and very conservative image that artists, fans of more modernity, tried to make it leave through the decorative arts. Regular exhibitions, numerous busts, steles and commemorative works, a continuous presence at the Salon of French Artists recognized by a gold medal in 1933, the official recognition of a title of Knight of the Legion of Honor the same year, everything contributes to making Louis-Henri Nicot a recognized and consensual artist. The artist died in 1944, while he was preparing the publication of new ceramic works in Quimper.