CATALOGUE ROGER GODCHAUX

Georges HILBERT

(Nemours, 1900 - 1982)


Georges HILBERT

(Nemours, 1900 - 1982)


Georges Hilbert was born in Nemours, Algeria, on 20th March 1900 and died on 6th September 1982. He lived in Sèvres (Hauts-de-Seine) for several years, where he had his house and his workshop. When he was 17 years old, Georges Hilbert started studying at the School of Fine Arts in Alger, where he was Georges Béguet’s student. Decided to make his career as a sculptor, he attended courses at the School of Decorative Arts, then at the School of Fine Arts in Paris. In 1925, aged of 25 years old, he received the gold medal of the Decorative Arts Exhibition for a collective artwork, Pergola de la Douce France. In order to evoke knighthood, he sculpted a horse on one of the eight slabs made of stone Lens stone composing one of his artworks. His friend Pompon sculpted the boar of another slab. After the Paris Exhibition, the artwork was transferred to Etampes, where it was reassembled in 1935 at the bottom of the Guinette tower, by the municipality. After that, he received other rewards for his work, among, in 1928, the Price of the American Foundation Blumenthal, which aim is to promote the thought of French art in the United-States, and, in 1973, the 1st Price of the Salon des Artistes Français and the Price Edouard Marcel Sandoz. In 1931, Hilbert joined the group des Douze, created by his friend François Pompon, gathering sculptors such as Charles Artus, Marcel Lémar, Paul Jouve, Jane Poupelet and Georges Lucien Guyot. Georges Hilbert worked with a direct carving technique. He drew inspiration mainly in the world of animals and little by little, he stifled his bestiary: La Buse, also called La Crécelle, Cheval Sauvage, Lion, La Louve, Chimpanzé, Singe magot… He gave to the Manufacture of Sèvres several models of figurines, in particular, Aigle, Panthère. Some of his sculptures are now at the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris, and also in museums abroad, in Denver, New York, Toledo. General secretary of Florence Blumenthal’s association and former general secretary of de the National Union of French Statuary, Georges Hilbert was a member of the French Institute (Academy of Fine Arts since 1973), Knight of the Legion of Honour, and Knight of Arts and Letters.