Contrary to what we imagine from afar, this beautiful monument is not communal but was erected at the request of the parents of Lieutenant André Bouxin (and at their expense). The monument itself and the statue it houses and showcases were produced by two «Rome Prizes».
This Art Deco-style funerary monument is a fine example of the work of Michel Roux-Spitz (1888-1957), an architect and decorator based in Paris, active in France, Belgium and Italy from 1923 to 1957.
Grand Prix of Rome in 1920, this pupil of Tony Garnier made himself noticed at the same time with the decoration of the hall of a Ministry of Fine Arts at the Exhibition of Decorative Arts of 1925, before becoming one of the most representative architects of modern classical, domestic and civil architecture of the 1930s. The Aubenton monument, a private commission, is one of his first works and seems never to have caught the attention of his commentators. (Text: Inventaire des Hauts de France)
The white marble statue is the work of the sculptor Charles-Georges Cassou (1887-1947, Prix de Rome 1920), also known for having made the statues decorating the splendid pool of Neptune in the Californian castle of billionaire William Randolph Hearst, US press magnate who inspired Orson Wells' film: Citizen Kane.
He is an artist illustrating the academic and official currents of the statuary of the Third Republic of which he is a perfect representative with his peaceful naturalism, his calm realism and his decorative concern. The bust of Aubenton, depicting the features of the young officer in the appearance of a young man with a beautiful face underlined by a sketch of a smile, is probably a work intended for a private setting, cutting through the more official portrait of the cemetery of Aubenton. (…) The church of Notre-Dame d'Aubenton also preserved a commemorative canopy set up in 1931 by the master glassmaker Charles Champigneulle, destroyed in 1940, it was replaced by a canopy by Charles Eyck dating from 1969. (Text: Inventory of the Hauts de France)