Alfred Bottiau

Alfred-Alphonse Bottiau (6 February 1889 – 25 February 1951) was a French sculptor. He was born in Valenciennes and after early studies in his home town he studied in Paris under Jean Antoine Injalbert and was runner-up for the Prix de Rome for sculpture in 1919. Bottiau had joined the army in 1910 and served until 1919. He was director of the Écoles Académiques de Valenciennes from 1946 to 1951.

Bottiau often worked with the architect Paul Philippe Cret and together they carried out several commissions for the American Battle Monuments Commission. One such commission was the Chateau-Thierry American Monument which lies southeast of the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery. Bottiau was the sculptor of the two enormous figures representing France and the United States, which adorn the west face of this monument. This monument is known as the "Monument de la Côté 204" and it was erected to celebrate the role played by U.S soldiers in this sector in July 1918during the Second Battle of the Marne. It was inaugurated in 1930. An enormous eagle and shield stand in front of the east face of the monument and although this has not been established to be the case, this could also be the work of Bottiau, as he worked with Cret in Philadelphia and was the sculptor of the eagle and allegorical reliefs on the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia building there. Bottiau had travelled to the United States in 1932 and worked on several commissions in that country.

Bottiaux also worked on the Memorial Chapel in the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery. This cemetery covers those deaths incurred in the Aisne-Marne offensive which took place from May to October 1918. The cemetery holds 2,289 graves, among which are 250 soldiers whose remains could not be identified. Most of the deaths occurred during the Second Battle of the Marne. Another 1,060 men died but their remains were never found and their names are recorded on the walls of the Memorial Chapel. This Memorial Chapel was erected over front line trenches dug by the American Army’s 2nd Division as part of the defence of Belleau Wood. Bottiau carried out the chapel’s decorative embellishments to the design of William F.Ross and Company of East Cambridge in Massachusetts.

Bottiau’s work on the Memorial Chapel includes the relief in the tympanum above the chapel entrance. In the centre of Bottiau’s composition is a crusader in armour, the defender of "Right", and on either side of this crusader are the shields of the United States and France, these being intertwined with branches of oak, a symbol of the traditional unity of the two countries.

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