The accordeon player - Jan et Joël MARTEL (1896-1966)

Sculpture made in stone from Euville

France
circa 1927
height 32,2 cm

A similar model is reproduced in "J.J. Martel, sculpteurs", Gallimard/Electa, Paris, 1996, page 24.

Biography :
The twins Jan and Joël Martel, born March 5, 1896 in Nantes and died respectively on March 16 and September 25, 1966 in Bois-de-Céné, were both of them French sculptors and decorators. As Parisian artists, they spent long moments in Vendée region, in their Mollin property, or in Saint-Jean-de-Monts, city in which one can see their last monumental work: "The Sea Birds". Their works were sculptures, monuments or fountains of Art Deco or Cubist inspiration. They also realized around 1920 interior fittings for villas.

Jan and Joel Martel shared the same workshop and their work to the point of signing their compositions only by "Martel". The Martel brothers took part in the Salon des Indépendants, the Salon d'Automne, the Salon des Tuileries and the Decorative Arts Exhibition of 1925, where they presented, in collaboration with Robert Mallet-Stevens, Cubist trees made of reinforced concrete that defied then the chronicle. In the Villa Noailles, which the architect made in Hyères in 1923-1928, Jan and Joël Martel executed a bas-relief on the central column of the hall and a polyhedral mirror. In 1926-1927, Mallet-Stevens built a mansion for the two brothers at No. 10 rue Mallet-Stevens in Paris, whose main entrance door was designed by Jean Prouvé. In 1932, they made a monument to Claude Debussy, in the Claude-Debussy Garden in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The twins died in 1966 at six months of interval, Joel victim of the disease of Charcot, Jean following an accident of the road.