Mascotte Rien ne sert de courir, par Joanny Durand,... Lot n° 5

Joanny DURAND (1886-1955) Silver-plated bronze - H.: 14 cm Signed Joanny Durand - "Rien ne sert de courir" ("Nothing is gained by running") Registered design numbered "3 Mounted on a stopper Very rare, model never listed A sculptor, engraver, ceramist, poster artist, poet and writer, Joanny Durand was a jack-of-all-trades in the first part of the 20th century. A pupil of J. DAMPT (1854- 1945) and INJALBERT (1845-1933), from 1901 he attended the Ecole Régionale des Arts Industriels in Saint-Etienne, before entering the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1910. Sent to the front in 1914, Joanny Durand was a corporal in the 238th Infantry Regiment. The victim of three bullets and a shrapnel wound, he returned from the Battle of the Marne crippled, before being awarded the Military Medal with commendation. Once peace was restored, inspired by French history and the duty of remembrance, he refocused his work on building monuments to the glory of those of '14. Aside from these works in tribute to those who fell in the First World War, Joanny Durand was very prolific during the interwar period. He exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français, the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Rouen in 1923, and in 1929 was awarded the gold medal at the 4th Exposition Internationale d'Arts Décoratifs Modernes et de l'Habitation in Nice. Joanny Durand's poetry and inventiveness of the '20s are brought to bear on an automobile mascot. The artist gives shape to his interpretation of La Fontaine's fable: a woman pulls the reins of the tortoise, forced to slow down. This time, it's the woman who's trying to make haste slowly, at a senator's pace, because she knows that there's no point in running, it's better to start on time. A true ode to slowness, in a world then in search of that exhilaration brought on by speed and the automobile. Bibliography : Grande encyclopédie du Forez et des communes de la Loire. Gilbert GARDES, director of publications, Le coteau, Horvath, 1984, p. 227 to 231.