Pierre Joseph Landry

American, 1770–1843

Landry was born on the coast of Brittany on January, 5, 1770, at Saint-Servan-sur-Mer. His father, a military officer, died in 1772. He came with his mother to what was the old Pointe Coupee Parish in 1785. Landry entered the military at a young age and rose to the rank of captain during the War of 1812. He claimed a special friendship with General Andrew Jackson. Landry operated a plantation in Iberville Parish and married Marie Scholastique Breaux (c. 1770–1804) in 1790. The couple had seven children. After her death, Landry married Marguerite Capevielle (1776–1848)—they had an additional nine children.

Landry learned to draw maps and topographical views as a military officer. He prepared a manuscript entitled Les Tactiques Militaires about 1820. He appears to have been debilitated by tuberculosis in about 1833. Although he may have embellished powder horns earlier, Landry began carving wooden sculptures in the early 1830s. He died in 1843 with $20,000 in property, including several enslaved people. There is no mention of his sculptures in the will or inventory. His relatives, notably L. Valcour Landry, preserved his artistic legacy.

Head
Pierre Joseph Landry
Wood
Louisiana State Museum T0108.1991

Self-Portrait
Pierre Joseph Landry, 1833
Wood
Gift of the Heirs of Pierre Landry, Louisiana State Museum 02685.1

According to an eyewitness, Landry used an array of mirrors and dozens of polished knives to carve his self portrait. Most of his sculptures are made of beech or magnolia wood.

Cain and Abel
Pierre Joseph Landry, 1833
Wood, 16 x 13 inches
Gift of the Heirs of Pierre Landry, Louisiana State Museum 02685.2

The subject is taken from the Old Testament, Gen. 4-2. The first of Adam and Eve's sons, Abel obeyed God's commandments. The second, Cain, was profligate and eventually murdered Abel. Landry conceived the figures dressed in 1830s garb, suggesting allusion to current moral issues.

Allegory of Commerce
Pierre Joseph Landry, c. 1835
Wood, 21 x 17 inches
Gift of the Heirs of Pierre Landry, Louisiana State Museum 02685.3

The bundle of grain, cotton bale, and barrel suggests the commercial produce of Louisiana. The figure wears a Phrygian cap, an early American emblem of freedom or liberty tracing to ancient Rome and worn by the sans-culottes during the French Revolution. The significance of the umbrella-shaped tree is unclear.

Parable
Pierre Joseph Landry, c. 1835
Wood
Gift of the Heirs of Pierre Landry, Louisiana State Museum 02685.4

As with many of Landry's sculptures, the precise symbolic program has yet to be untangled.

Wheel of Life
Pierre Joseph Landry, 1834
Wood, 48 x 43 ½ x 7 inches
Gift of the Heirs of Pierre Landry, Louisiana State Museum 02685.5

Like Thomas Cole's Voyage of Life (1829; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), Wheel of Life traces an individual's progress from cradle to grave. The strange figure near the swaddled infant at the lower right is a puzzling inclusion. The figure representing middle age (top right) may be a self-portrait.