Original works of art

Richard Fath was an artist of extraordinary talent who, when his peers were working in the accepted, stylized mode of the art deco, chose to depict dogs and animals with a verisimilitude that is unmatched to this day. Unlike his more well known contemporaries such as Pompon and Bugatti, Fath is inextricably linked to the specialized world of purebred dogs. He knew the prominent breeders of his day, as well as the officials and staff of the Société Centrale Canine, the French equivalent of the American Kennel Club, and he created original sculptures in bronze, terra cotta and plaster, of some of the finest purebred dogs.

Fath was drawn to animals from an early age and they were his primary subject matter. He first trained at the studio schools of Saint-Maur-des-Fosséés, later enrolling in 1924 at the sculpture studio of Falguièère-Merciéé-Boucher, and making his first models of dogs in 1926. He received numerous awards during his lifetime, and was awarded an Honorary mention for his stone sculpture of Charlie van den Ruhmeshall, a Great Dane, at the Salon des Artistes Franççais.

Fath received numerous public and private commissions in France, including several from the Ministry of Agriculture, but he also received great international acclaim. Among the Americans who collected his work was the well-known Mary Crane, who commissioned bronze portraits of her well-known Great Pyrenees' imports. Fath's sculptures are represented in several French museum collections, most notably The Museum of the Hunt in Gien, The Picardie Museum in Amiens and the A.G. Poulain Museum in Vernon, among several others. In the Untied States, The American Kennel Club in New York and the American Kennel Club Museum of The Dog in Saint Louis, have several of his bronzes.