Robert Laurent

Best known for his virtuoso mastery of the figure, Laurent sculpted in multiple media, including wood, alabaster, bronze, marble and aluminum. His expertise earned him major commissions for public sculpture, most famously for the Goose Girl for New York City's Radio City Music Hall, as well as for Spanning the Continent for Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. After the Depression, he was also the recipient of several Works Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Art Project commissions under the New Deal, including a bas-relief called Shipping for the exterior of Washington, D.C.'s Federal Trade Commission Building, commissioned by the Treasury Department's Section of Fine Arts in 1938.

The recorded working language is French. Employment is recorded with Indiana University. Work by Robert Laurent is recorded in the collections of Art Institute of Chicago, Whitney Museum of American Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum and Vanderbilt Museum of Art. Distinctions recorded are Rome Prize.

• Name — Robert Laurent • Awards — National Institute of Arts & Letters, National Sculpture Society, American Academy in Rome, Sculptor's Guild • Notable Works — Sculpture at Radio City Music Hall • Known for — American Pioneer of "Direct Carving." Co-Founder of The Ogunquit Summer School of Graphic Arts (Maine) • Born — June 29, 1890 • Education — British Academy • Movement — Modernism • Place of death — Cape Neddick, Maine • Died — April 20, 1970 • Birthplace — Concarneau, France • Spouse — Mimi Caraes

Laurent was born the son of French peasants in Concarneau, Brittany, France in 1890. His skill in art was recognized by Brooklyn Eagle art critic, painter and collector Hamilton Easter Field who mentored him, taught him to paint and served as Laurent's surrogate father for the rest of his life. In 1908, Field took Laurent to Rome, where he trained with Maurice Sterne and wood carver Giuseppe Doratori, before formally studying at the British Academy. Upon graduation, Laurent moved permanently to the U.S. at age twenty, only to quickly return to Europe as a member of the navy during the First World War. In Europe, Laurent traveled to his native Brittany where he met Mimi Caraes, who became his wife. Field died in 1922, leaving Laurent his Brooklyn home, the Ogunquit school they had co-founded and an art collection, which Laurent later used to establish as the Hamilton Easter Field Foundation with the help of other New York artists.

Laurent taught at the Art Students League in New York City, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., Vassar College, and Goucher College. In addition to teaching seasonally at the Ogunquit School until 1961, Laurent accepted a position as Professor of Fine Arts at Indiana University, a position he held from 1942 to 1960. He had notable students including Margit Varga.

Laurent's son, John, was a prominent painter in Maine, known for his landscapes and seascapes.

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Public collections across the United States hold Laurent's work, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MOMA, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian Art Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Addison Gallery, Indiana University and the Terra Foundation for Art, among others.