Alon Zakaim Fine Art

Demeter Haralamb Chiparus was born in 1886 in Dorohoi, Romania. In 1909 he moved to Italy, where he attended the classes of Italian sculptor Raffaello Romanelli. In 1912 he traveled to Paris to attend the Ecole des Beaux Arts to pursue his art at the classes of Antonin Mercie and Jean Boucher.

Chiparus' early sculptures were created in the realistic style and were exhibited at the Salon of 1914. He employed the combination of bronze and ivory, called chryselephantine, to great effect. Most of his renowned works were made between 1914 and 1933.

The mature style of Chiparus took shape beginning in the 1920s. His sculptures are remarkable for their bright and outstanding decorative effect. Dancers of the Russian Ballet, French theatre, and early motion pictures were among his more notable subjects and were typified by a long, slender, stylised appearance. Quite often, Chiparus used the photos of Russian and French dancers, vedettes and models from fashion magazines of his time.

He worked primarily with the Edmond Etling and Cie Foundry in Paris, administrated by Julien Dreyfus. Les Neveux de J. Lehmann was another foundry who worked with Chiparus and produced the sculptures of his models.

Chiparus rarely exhibited at the Salon. In 1923 he showed his Javelin Thrower and in 1928 exhibited his Ta-Keo dancer. During the period of Nazi persecution and the World War II the foundries discontinued production of work by Chiparus. The economic situation of that time was not favourable to the development of decorative arts and circumstances for many sculptors worsened.

Since the early 1940s almost no works by Chiparus were sold, but he continued sculpting for his own pleasure, depicting animals in the Art Deco style. Collector interest in his work developed in the 1970s and has flourished since the 1990s.

Demeter Chiparus died in 1947 and was buried in Bagneux cemetery, just south of Paris.