Last updated: November 11, 2023
Person
Raoul Josset
Dallas Historical Society
Quick Facts
Significance:
Sculptor Raoul Josset carved the two Native American chiefs that guard the entrance to the Lincoln Memorial bridge in Vincennes, Indiana.
Place of Birth:
France
Date of Birth:
December 9, 1899
Place of Death:
Dallas, Texas
Date of Death:
June 29, 1957
Place of Burial:
Dallas, Texas
Cemetery Name:
Calvary Hill Cemetery
Sculptor Raoul Josset carved the two Native American columns that stand beside the entrance to the Lincoln Memorial bridge in Vincennes, Indiana.
Raoul Jean Josset was born in Fours, France on December 9, 1899. Like many of the artists involved with the George Rogers Clark Monument, Josset went to the École des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts in Paris). After serving in WWI as an interpreter for The American expeditionary force in France, he returned the School of Fine arts to pursue his apprenticeship in sculpture. His early work won first-place medals in Paris and Rome.
Joining his friend and fellow sculptor, José Martin in America, Josset and Martin worked together on several projects in Chicago and Dallas including the Spirit of the Centennial Statue, for the Texas Centennial Exposition administration building (now The Women's Museum), Fair Park, Dallas, Texas in 1936. It is unknown if Martin participated in the design or sculpting of the Memorial Bridge towers.
In 1934, the Bennett, Parsons, and Frost Company commissioned him to create granite sculptures of two Native American men for the [Lincoln] Memorial Bridge in Vincennes, Indiana. Local pressure during the bridge's construction resulted in the statues being identified as the Shawnee leader Tecumseh, and his brother, Tenkswatawa. The two statues were unveiled by President Franklin Roosevelt in June 1936.
In 1953 Josset was elected to the National Academy of Design as an Associate Academician. Martin and Josset's partnership and friendship continued until Josset’s death of cirrhosis of the liver in1957.