George Grard

Having won the Prix Rubens (1930), he left for Paris, where he encountered the sculpture of Charles Despiau, Aristide Maillol and Pierre Renoir, which influenced his mature style. In 1931, he set up his studio at Saint-Idesbald, non the coast, where his house became a rendez-vous of artists including Pierre Caille, the Haesaerts brothers, Edgard Tytgat, and Paul Delvaux. In 1935, he was commissioned to create a sculpture for the rose garden at the Exposition universelle et internationale. Two years later Henry Van de Velde asked him for a work for the Belgian pavilion of the Exposition internationale, 1937. In the nineteen-fifties Grard, still in full possession of his mature powers, received repeated public commissions: the Seated Figure at the Banque Nationale, Brussels (1950), La Mer, fronting the post office at Ostend (1955, illustration), the Naïade at Tournai (1950), and Earth and Water, near the Albert Bridge at Liège (1964). Grard died in Saint-Idesbald in 1984.

• Name — George Grard • Born — 1901 • Birthplace — Tournai, Belgium • Died — 1984 • Place of death — Saint-Idesbald, Belgium • Education — Académie de Tournai • Known for — Sculptures of female figures • Style — Representational • Awards — Prix Rubens (1930) • Illustration — Georges Grard: Niobe (1948)

• Illustration — Koksijde

George Grard is recorded as sculptor and artist.