French sculptor Joseph Rivière received an Honorable Mention at the 1948 London Olympics in the Art Competitions category Sculpturing, Statues with his work Athlete Marchant (bronze). Also known as Standing Male Nude or Naked Athlete, it was approximately a 36 cm high bronze figure. Rivière was a figurative bronze sculptor and produced some war memorials in Charmes and Luxeuil. His most famous work is his monument to the dead miners of the Ballon d’Alsace. In World War II he served from 1939 and became a prisoner-of-war in 1940 in Germany, but was released in 1941 to France because of his poor health. Rivière had studied in Bordeaux and was a member of the Société des artistes français and the Salon d’Automne. In 1949 he was appointed professor of sculpture at the Académie Julian and in 1957 knight of the Legion of Honor.
France