Raymond Mason, born in Birmingham, England, studied at the Birmingham School of Arts and Crafts and the Slade School of Art and moved to Paris in 1946. He is known for his polychrome reliefs and monumental sculptures that incorporate landscapes, figures and crowds to convey a wide range of human emotion and experience within individual works. Also a noted painter and draftsman, he did finely detailed watercolor studies of fruits, vegetables, flowers and people. Mason purchased a house near Menerbes in the Provencal countryside. Surrounded by vineyards, the house stood on a hill facing the northern slopes of the Petit Luberon. As a city dweller, Mason needed several years to realize how exceptional the views surrounding him were. "When the mistral wind blows, every tree and rock of the mountain opposite springs into such relief that I feel that I can stretch out my hand and touch it." Editions of his masterpiece "The Departure of Fruit and Vegetables from the Heart of Paris, 28 February 1969," are in the permanent collection of the Tate Gallery, London, and in a side chapel of St. Eustache, the church depicted in the background of the sculpture, which is in the Les Halles section of Paris. Mason is represented in public and private collections in the United States and in Europe, including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Tate Gallery, London; and the Centre Pompidou, Paris. He was awarded the title Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres in 1978 and an Order of the British Empire in the New Year Honours 2002. (http://wldfoundation.org/artist.php?artist=MASN) undefined

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