Alfred-Auguste Janniot le flamboyant : Le vivant dans la sculpture

The walls of the Palais de la Porte Dorée in Paris feature a bas-relief covering 1,128 square metres – the largest in the world, and yet still little known… Alfred Janniot (1889–1969), a leading figure in Art Deco aesthetics, sculpted this immense stone panel between 1928 and 1931 on the facades of the Palais for the 1931 International Colonial Exhibition.

A journey through time and space, this work helps us to understand the artist’s masterpiece: this fascinating exotic paradise teeming with life on the bas-reliefs. Whilst Janniot’s idyllic vision does not reflect the terrible reality of forced labour and oppression experienced by the indigenous people, this work of fiction—unique in the world—depicts 250 characters and animals with extraordinary skill, much like a comic strip.