Roger Godchaux showed at a young age skills for drawing and sculpting. Student of J.L. Gérôme at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, he spent hours drawing the menagerie of stuffed beasts at the Natural History Museum. Mostly a sculptor of animals, he dedicated himself almost exclusively to the sculpture of big felines (panthers, jaguars, lions) and elephants. Godchaux, a great admirer of Barye (he possessed almost 40 of the sculptor’s bronzes), followed in the footsteps of his idol without, however, adopting Barye’s Romantic taste for violent scenes.

Godchaux’s big beasts and elephants are peaceable animals, shown in their natural habitat and pose. Each of his works gives rise to a precise, realistic study of the animal it represents and to numerous sketches.

His works are rarely dated, but his artistic production took place between the two wars, and he exhibited regularly at the Salon of French Artists, where he won a bronze medal in 1921, silver in 1928 and gold in 1952. The sculptures by Godchaux, whose rare and precious pieces evidence an Impressionistic touch that is perfectly adapted to the treatment of the big cats’ fur coats, are highly sought-after by collectors.