Pair of bookends with Elephants - Ary BITTER (1883-1973)

A very fine pair of bronze sculptures with nuanced dark brown patina
Old cast by Susse Frères
Wooden bases, with light wood fillets

France
Circa 1935
total height for one: 28,5 cm
total height for the other: 17 cm

Biography:
Ary Jean Léon Bitter also named Ary Bitter (1883-1973) was a French painter, designer and sculptor. He entered the School of Fine Arts in Marseille in 1895 and studied sculpture under the direction of Emile Aldebert. In 1900, he won the First Prize, in the "torso" section. In 1902, Bitter won the competition which sent him to study in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, where he entered the studio of the master Ernest Louis Barrias. In parallel, he frequented Jules Coutan's studio. He exhibited in 1910 at the Salon des Artistes Français and received an honorable mention with his "Child with a kid goat", then a silver medal at the Salon of 1921 for "Girl with a kid goat". In 1923, he created the mascot of the personal car of Mrs. Louis Renault. In 1924, Bitter finally received the gold medal at the Salon.

In 1925, Ary Bitter exhibited alongside Paul Sylvester, Maximilian Fiot, Roger Godchaux and Georges Guyot at the Susse gallery on Boulevard de la Madeleine. The same year, he exhibited at the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative Arts and Industrial Paris, then he published by Susse during the interwar period twenty-nine of his works and sixteen others by J. Lehmann's Les Neveux. The consecration came to him when he was declared out of competition at the 1932 Salon, and received the Legion of Honor the same year. In 1937, Bitter took part in the International Exhibition of Arts and Techniques in Paris, where he exhibited glassware, sandstone, with Bouraine at the Palais de la Céramique, and "Herakles", a bronze, at the Palais du Métal, in the company of of Guyot, Guino and Fiot.