Armand LaMontagne

Armand Maurice LaMontagne (February 3, 1938 – March 7, 2025) was an American sculptor of celebrated personalities.^[1]

Armand Lamontagne's stone ender farm in Scituate, Rhode Island

Background

Armand Maurice LaMontagne was born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, on February 3, 1938, and was a graduate of Worcester Academy and Boston College.^[2][3] He was a self-taught artist who has honed his skills through practicing his profession, which he began pursuing after serving in the U.S. Army.^[3] He studied his craft in Florence.^[3]

LaMontagne and his wife, Lorraine (née Robitaille), had a daughter.^[3] A resident of North Scituate, Rhode Island, he died from heart failure at home on March 7, 2025, at the age of 87.^[2][3]

Body of work

LaMontagne is best recognized for his realistic, life-sized wood and bronze sculptures. Lamontagne long focused on New England sporting legends as subjects of his work, including Ted Williams, Larry Bird, Bobby Orr, Carl Yastrzemski, and Harry Agganis.^[4] Writer Saul Wisnia described Lamontagne's wood sculpture in Sports Illustrated: "With hair, clothes and shoes all carved from single 1,800-to-2,500-pound blocks of basswood, LaMontagne's works often leave viewers staring in disbelief at what appears to be real skin, wool and leather. Sometimes amazement gives way to emotion; upon seeing his statue in 1985, the notoriously rough-edged Williams broke down and cried." His works are on permanent display in the collections of The Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, New York; the New England Sports Museum, Boston, Massachusetts; the Patton Museum of Cavalry and Armor, Fort Knox, Kentucky; and the Basketball Hall of Fame, Springfield, Massachusetts.

LaMontagne's talents were brought to the national spotlight in the 1970s when he deliberately made a reproduction of a 17th-century turned oak Brewster Chair (an iconic Pilgrim chair) to embarrass the self-proclaimed experts.^[5] LaMontagne even soaked the chair in salt water to simulate aging. He then gave the chair away, and the Henry Ford Museum eventually purchased it from a dealer for $9,000. The museum was notified of their error when LaMontagne published an admission in the Providence Journal.

In 1973, LaMontagne built a large crucifix for Saint Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Scituate, Rhode Island.^[6] He also built a replica 17th-century Rhode Island house called a stone ender in Scituate, Rhode Island.^[7][8]