Maxime Real del Sarte

Maxime Real del Sarte (May 2, 1888 – February 15, 1954) was a French sculptor and political activist.

Biography

Early life Maxime Real del Sarte was born on 2 May 1888 in Paris, France, as the son of the sculptor Louis Desire Real and Marie Magdeleine Real del Sarte. He was a cousin of the painter Thérèse Geraldy and was also related to the composer Georges Bizet. He graduated from the École des Beaux-Arts, and by 1911 was at the Académie Julian, where both his mother and an aunt were teachers. He served in World War I, in the 106th Infantry Regiment of the French Army and had his left arm amputated in 1916 after being wounded at Verdun on 29 January. He won the Grand Prix national des Beaux-Arts in 1921 for Le premier toit . He also designed many statues of Joan of Arc, including one in Rouen placed effectively on the site where she was executed (1928).

Politics He became involved with the right-wing Action française, where he became associated with Charles Maurras, Léon Daudet, Jacques Bainville, Maurice Pujo, Henri Vaugeois and Léon de Montesquiou. He founded and led the Action française-affiliated royalist youth organisation the Camelots du roi. He was a devout and fervent Roman Catholic with a strong devotion to Joan of Arc. He was wounded in an anti-parliamentary clash on 6 February 1934.

His statue of General Charles Mangin, which was made thanks to a subscription launched by Marshal Foch and erected on the Place Denys-Cochin, was destroyed by the Germans who occupied Paris in October 1940, on the express orders of Adolf Hitler, one of only two statues in Paris he ordered destroyed. During World War II, he was awarded a medal by the Vichy regime.

Death He died on 15 February 1954 near Saint-Jean-de-Luz.