Henry PARAYRE (1879-1970) Mermaid. Terracotta monogrammed and dated 1959 on the terrace. Height. Height : 28 cm Provenance : Family of the sculptor. Bibliography : Laurent FAU, " Henry Parayre, 1879-1970 ", edition Chemins d'encre, Conques, 2012, our model to be compared with a series of candleholders made in collaboration with André Arbus illustrated p. 185. Raised by grandparents who made chairs, Henry Parayre discovered sculpture through working with scrap wood. In 1892, he entered the Beaux-Arts de Toulouse before perfecting his education in Paris and taking classes with the great Paul Dubois. Very close to the painter Marcel-Lenoir, Parayre was also a friend of Aristide Maillol. He shared with the latter a certain taste for the voluptuous forms of women and became the leader of the Toulouse school. The monument to Jean Jaurès in the square of the Capitole in the pink city, or that of Paul Lacombe in Carcassonne, are probably his most famous personal works in his time. However, it is probably his collaboration with the decorator André Arbus for the decoration of the liner the Provence that is most appreciated today. Following the example of Vadim Androusov, Henry Parayre sculpted soft and enigmatic figures that adorned the furniture of the master of Art Deco. Our mermaids, which remain in the collections of his descendants, present hitherto unknown variations of his hybrid figures, sometimes as armrests, sometimes as candleholders. Retired to Conques at the end of his life, the sculptor devoted himself to the study of a last subject, a representation of the patron saint of the town, full of gentleness.