Georges Jeanclos

Georges Jeanclos (9 April 1933 – 30 March 1997) was a French sculptor, and ceramic artist working mostly with terracotta, but also bronze. He is known for his sculptures of human figures made of and covered with thin sheets of clay, some bearing Hebrew letters.

Early life and education Georges Jeankelowitsch was born in Paris into a Jewish family, Lithuanian on his father's side and the Comtat Venaissin on his mother's. In 1943, at the age of 10, he hid with his family in the forests around Vichy for one year to escape the Gestapo in Nazi-occupied France. After the war the family changed their name to Jeanclos.

In 1946, after WWII at the age of thirteen, he apprenticed to a sculptor, Robert Mermet (1896-1988).

Work The sculptures are made of and covered with thin sheets of clay, which has been intensely beaten and stretched under enormous physical effort. Human figures are often made with the help of moulds. His sculptures represent or incorporate Jewish themes: Hebrew letters from the mourning Kaddish on blankets of sleepers, urns, references to the medieval rabbi Rashi, and meditating poses ("Kamamuras").

Public commissions of bronze work began in 1983, with the support of François Mitterrand, who was fond of his work. This resulted in five public sculptures in Paris alone (Homage to Jean Moulin on the Champs-Élysées in 1984, a fountain on Place Stalingrad in 1988, the Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre fountain Square Viviani in 1991, the Fruits of the Earth, which are the massive bronze doors of the Finance Ministry in 1987), one in Provins (the tympanum of the church of Saint-Ayoul in 1985), one in Savigny-en-Septaine (a monument commemorating the Tragedy of the Guerry's wells in 1992) and the last one in Lille (the portal of Notre-Dame de la Treille in 1997).