Marguerite Anne de Blonay

Swiss Marguerite de Blonay focussed early on sculpturing and was educated beginning in 1923 at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière on Montparnasse in Paris, where she worked together with jury member Antoine Bourdelle under Ary Bitter. Her father was the director of a foundry. In 1922 she began exhibiting in Paris and throughout Europe. In 1934, de Blonay founded a school of painting and sculpture in Casablanca. In 1949 she became a correspondent for the colonial sciences at the Académie Française, as a result of extensive expeditions through Africa, especially to Guinea and Cameroon.

De Blonay created large-sized figures and groups, portrait busts and animal figures. Her works evolved towards Expressionism. Since the 1950s, she also exhibited paintings. Her Lanceur de poids is said to have been awarded in Paris according to a contemporary Swiss newspaper.