Auguste Trémont

Auguste Nicolas Trémont (31 December 1892 – 23 October 1980) was a Luxembourger. He specialised in sculptures of animals, with a particular emphasis on big cats.

After spending his childhood in Luxembourg, Auguste Tremont moved to Paris where he enrolled at the Ecole des Arts décoratifs in 1909. World War I caught him by surprise while he was visiting Luxembourg. As he tried to make his way back to Paris by passing through Switzerland, he was arrested by German forces near the Swiss border and was imprisoned. Once released from detention, he returned to Luxembourg where he remained until the end of the war in 1918, working in a steel factory in Dudelange This work gave him the opportunity to practice his skills by drawing pictures of steel workers in action; he also befriended future Arbed president Aloyse Meyer.

At the end of the war, Trémont returned to Paris where he studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. He first specialized in portraits and pictures of Paris and still life. This changed when he visited the Jardin des Plantes, the zoological gardens, where he found the subjects that were to become his main area of specialization: animals. Later in his life, when asked why he chose to represent animals, he replied: “because it was the most difficult task”.

In 1924, Trémont made his first sculptures, and he subsequently developed his skills as a sculptor by creating animal sculptures in a variety of sizes and species. The late 1920s-early 1930s were his most productive years; it is during this period that he sculpted, in Paris, two large lions that now decorate the entrance of the Luxembourg City Hall. He spent World War II in Paris, and returned to Luxembourg at the end of the war where he created monuments for the victims of the war. He later returned to his wonderful detailed still life and oil paintings of flowers and portraits.

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