L. (LOUIS) NOËL

Biography

L. (LOUIS) NOËL
1839 Saint-Omer (France) - 1925 Parijs (France)

Louis Noël, born Hubert Noël Louis on April 1, 1839, in Ruminghem, Pas-de-Calais, France, emerged as a distinguished French sculptor whose career spanned the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The eldest of five children of Noël Hubert Joseph-Augustin Louis and Marie Thérèse Joseph Barrois, he moved with his family to Saint-Omer around 1847, where his artistic inclination took root. Educated by the Frères des Écoles Chrétiennes, Noël briefly pursued a mercantile path in Lille, but his passion for art led him back to study at the École Académique de Saint-Omer. In 1859, a scholarship from Saint-Omer propelled him to Paris, where he trained at the École des Beaux-Arts under François Jouffroy, launching a prolific career with his Paris Salon debut in 1863. Noël’s work encompassed commissioned busts, statues, and public monuments, including the Monument à Louis Martel in Saint-Omer, the Monument à David d’Angers in Angers (earning him the chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur), and religious figures like Sainte Philomène and the Virgin and Saint John for Boulogne-sur-Mer’s basilica. His Baigneuse, a seated bather exhibited in plaster at the 1888 Salon and later in marble in 1891, stands apart as a rare personal creation, distinct from his typical assignments. Noël’s collaboration with Auguste Bartholdi, the famed sculptor of the Statue of Liberty, on the Monument des Trois Sièges in Belfort (1913) highlights his stature among peers. A silver medal at the 1889 Exposition Universelle, a second-class medal at the 1873 Salon, and membership in the Société des Artistes Français underscored his acclaim. Residing at 108 Rue de Vaugirard in Paris for over fifty years, Noël raised his daughter Jeanne (later married to sculptor Jules Déchin) after his wife’s death. His final Salon entry, Sainte Marguerite-Marie (1924), adorns Église Saint-Augustin. Noël died in Paris on January 11, 1925, at 85, leaving a legacy of technical mastery and occasional, striking independence.