Sculptural bronze base with black patina, original glass top with radial corners. There are small fitted leather pads on feet and arms. Signed . Sculptural base measures

The metal tamer

François Thévenin is an architect, sculptor and designer of furniture.

Born in 1931, this student of Fine Arts in Paris finds his native Côte d'Azur in the mid-60s, when the architect Jacques Couëlle starts the construction site of Castellaras, a vast colony of billionaires located between Mougins and Mouans- Sartoux.

Together, they invent the "landscape house", an ecological concept before the time if ever there was one, where the habitat fits in perfectly with its natural environment. For this project, François Thévenin dresses the residences with chairs, coffee tables, light fixtures and staircases; as many pieces of metal, brass, forged by hand, even wooden.

His work is characterized by an intensive use of the hammer, which he particularly likes, certain parts having required up to 300 hours of manual work. For him, the metal thus worked evokes the purity of the elements and the harshness of the sun that strikes in the heart of summer.

Thévenin has long collaborated with his wife Sido, sometimes working with her and with four hands on a single piece of metal