The Ateliers-musée Chana Orloff are part of the intimate, moving and singular places of Paris. The whole work of an important sculptor of the twentieth century is presented in the house-workshop designed by the architect Auguste Perret in 1926.
This place was labeled in 2020 «Maisons des illustres», one year after the installation of the sculpture «Mon fils marin» by Chana Orloff on the place «des Droits de l'Enfant».
Chana Orloff was born into a Jewish family in Ukraine near Odessa. She arrived in Paris in 1910. Very quickly, she started sculpting and became one of the major figures of the Paris school. In the 1920s, members of the Parisian intelligentsia commissioned his portrait. In 1937, the Petit Palais reserved an entire room for him as part of the exhibition «Les maîtres de l'art indépendant». His sculptures are smooth, seductive, as illustrated Mon fils marin, which dates from 1927. Between the two wars, she exhibits in Europe, Palestine, Japan and the United States …
In 1945, returning from Geneva where she had taken refuge from 1942, she returned to Paris. His workshops are devastated and many sculptures have disappeared or are shattered. The shock of war prompted him to question his artistic practice.
His style evolves in depth. The imprint of his fingers will now be present in most of his works, which remain figurative while tending for some towards abstraction. This major artist has created nearly 500 sculptures and more than 3,000 drawings in sixty years. The visit is free in the presence of the small children of Chana Orloff who can answer your questions.