Anna Quinquaud

Anna Fanny Marguerite Quinquaud (1890–1984) was a French explorer and award-winning sculptor. From 1925, she travelled to the French-speaking countries of East Africa where she created numerous sculptures and water colours inspired by her impressions of the local people. She exhibited them at the Galerie Charpentier and at the Paris Colonial Exposition in 1931. In 1932, she visited Ethiopia where she created a bust of Haile Selassie.

Her work is included in the collection of the musée Despiau-Wlérick in Mont-de-Marsan, France.

Early life and education Born on 5 March 1890 in Paris, Following the death of her father, she spent her summers on the family's property at Lafat in the Creuse where her mother had a studio. It was at Lafat when only 12 years old that she created a terracotta relief titled "La Bergère et ses moutons".

Career

In 1924, the École des Beaux-Arts awarded her a Prix de Rome scholarship, including a year's study in Rome. However quite unusually for a young woman of her day, she decided instead to travel to Africa in 1925–26, visiting the Niger, Mauritania, Senegal, Sudan and Mali, accompanied only by her Sudanese boys who carried her sculptures, clothes and equipment. Inspired by the local people, she portrayed them in her sculptures.

Thanks to her careful observation of their bodies and faces, her busts, bronzes and artwork depicted African women during pregnancy, carrying water or at work.

She subsequently returned to Africa in 1930–31, this time at her own expense, visiting the Niger, the Fouta Djallon region of French Guinea and Timbuktu. Aspiring to capture the essence of these people, she commented: "Isn't it the artist's role to reveal to the non-initiate what he is unable to see?" Whether in wood, bronze or terracotta, her works depict the slim, haughty silhouettes of these figures, also revealing their gestures and movements.

In 1932, she visited Africa for the third and last time, visiting Somalia, Ethiopia and Madagascar, once again bringing back her creations. These and earlier works were exhibited at the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne in 1937. 1914: Prix de sculptures décerné par l’Union des Femmes Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs et Décorateurs 1924: Prix de Rome, second prize 1924: Prix de l'Afrique Occidentale Française 1932: Prix de Madagascar 1932: Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur 1946: Elected to the Académie des sciences d'outre-mer 1952: Grand prix des Arts décoratifs d'outre-mer