The French sculptor Henri Laurens (1885-1954) was one of the first artists to find an equivalency in sculpture for Cubist painting.

In this century of mobility, Henri Laurens was an exception in that he was born, lived his life, and died in one city--Paris. Despite his humble family background and his extremely limited academic and artistic training, he distinguished himself as one of France's most outstanding sculptors of modern times and was a close friend of many of the important artists and intellectuals of his time.

After several years of primary schooling, he entered the workshop of an ornamental sculptor where Laurens modelled figurines and did tracings of architectural decorations. This experience led him to his next occupation as a sculptor of architectural embellishments, often working on the scaffolding of buildings under construction. In the evenings he attended drawing classes in the studio of "Pere Perrin," where he...