Denise Pietra-Corbara,

Denise Pietra-Corbara, born in 1943, met Félix Agostini while studying under him. She became his companion and worked for nearly twenty years in his studio on rue de Penthièvre, until the sculptor’s death in 1980. Of Polish origin, she adopted the name Pietra-Corbara as a tribute to Félix’s Corsican roots, drawn to the sound of the village’s name. Dominique Kerguenne Agostini, Félix’s daughter, spent part of her childhood with Denise and was deeply attached to her. She remembers their journeys by car across Corsica, the "Island of Beauty": seated beside Félix in the front, Denise would read her The Charterhouse of Parma and The Red and the Black as he drove.

Throughout her career, Denise developed a body of work in her own right, returning to motifs dear to her companion: birds, figures and natural forms. Modelled directly in plaster and then cast in gilt bronze, her sculptures are distinguished by their compact scale and the simplicity of their volumes. The maison Charles is now issuing four of her works: L’Homme Cosmos (1975), Le Canard (1969), Le Petit Pivert and Le Grand Pivert (1974). Denise Pietra-Corbara died in 1990.