The sculptor, Yann Renard-Goulet RHA, who died on August 22nd last, was born in St Nazaire in Brittany in 1914 where his parents were hoteliers. His father was a master chef who had worked at Maxims.
Yann Renard-Goulet's precocious painting and drawing skills went unnoticed until an aunt took an interest in his talent and encouraged his parents to develop it. The family had a summer house at the resort of La Baule, and that is where his lifelong love for the sea began. He was a powerful swimmer and was twice honoured, once with the Carnegie medal for bravery, for saving the lives of bathers in difficulty.
He began to study architecture, but then won a scholarship, renewed annually for seven years, to L'Ecole National Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He thrived in this traditional academic environment, winning the Chenavar Prize for drawing. In sculptural terms he was a modeller rather than a carver, preferring the freedom and flexibility of modelling, casting the results in bronze, to the laborious business of stone carving. One of his teachers was Rodin's assistant Despiau. As a passionate Breton nationalist who occupied a prominent position in the separatist movement, after the war he found himself in trouble with the French authorities, who regarded him as a traitor. He and his family, his wife Vonig and their two young children, Armelle and Herve, were forced to go on the run. He was tried and condemned to death in absentia.
In 1947, on the pretext of mounting an art exhibition, the family travelled to Ireland with false identity papers. Because of the manner of their departure, they could bring only a change of clothes, a small amount of money and a number of paintings. They were taken in by Oscar McCarthy Willis, first at his house in Dalkey, and later in Bray, where they settled. They became Irish citizens and another daughter, Brigid, was born in Ireland.
It was extremely difficult to survive as an artist in Ireland at the time. Yann Renard-Goulet took a job locally making concrete blocks and then at night held art classes in his home. When he won a competition to design the Stations of the Cross for the Mother Home of the Redemptorists in Scotland, he borrowed money from the bank to build a studio in which to execute the commission. In 1949, before the Stations were completed, the benefactor who was funding it died, without leaving financial provisions for the project.
Another competition came to his rescue. In 1950, he won the commission to design the Dublin Brigade Memorial for the Custom House, a major public sculpture. Though he later felt that his sculpture was placed in a less prominent position than it deserved, it was a turning point in his life and put him on the map in Ireland. Requests for work started to come in and he was able to give up his manual day job. The course he ran at his Academy for Art provided students with a recognised qualification for teaching art.
His expressive style marked him out as an innovator in an Irish context. With his Breton cap, and a cigarette perpetually between his lips, he was an instantly recognisable figure, but despite his Gallic appearance he didn't take kindly to being described as French. Sculptor Imogen Stuart recalls how, having met him and made that assumption, she pointed out to him the blue, white and red chequered pattern of her skirt.
"He was not amused," she remembers, having been brusquely informed that as a Breton, his colours were black and white. He remained deeply attached to Brittany, even tuning into Breton radio for local sports results. The family spoke French at home, and Breton music and dance were always part of their lives. A devout Catholic, he regarded St Anne as his personal guardian. He was especially proud to be made an honorary Kerryman in 1981, after completing the Ballyseedy Memorial, a statue of Padraig Pearse, in Tralee.
He had strong Irish republican sympathies, and idealistic images of freedom fighters were a staple theme. He often related how, under conditions of some secrecy, he was commissioned to make a large bronze sculpture of a figure breaking free from its chains. When the figure was cast he was taken, at dead of night, to oversee its installation.
The destination was Crossmaglen in Co Antrim where, very quietly, the symbolic figure was installed on a massive granite plinth, to the dismay of the authorities when it was discovered at daybreak. His habitual subjects were such heroic monuments, religious figures and portraits. A very capable technician, his portrait sitters included Charles Haughey and Ben Dunne, and his historical subjects included a bust of Parnell for the House of Commons. He provided the Stations of the Cross for St Fergal's Church in Bray in 1981. He became a member of Aosdana in 1982, and was RHA Professor of Sculpture.
His wife Vonig died in 1997. By then he was himself seriously debilitated following a series of strokes.
He is survived by his daughters Armelle and Brigid, and his son Herve.
Yann Renard-Goulet: born 1914; died August 1999