The impressive Art Deco Victoria County monument in Memorial Park is a gorgeous work of art installed by the State of Texas and the United States Government in honor of the 1936 Texas Centennial.
The monument is located in the 400 block of E Power Street on the east side of Memorial Square.
The text on the monument reads as follows:
"Center panel:
[silhouette]
1528
Cabeza de Vaca
[silhouette]
1685
Cavelier
de La Salle
VICTORIA COUNTY
1807 (SYMBOL) Martin DeLeon brand
Under the Mexican Government Victoria was a district in 1832, a Municipality in 1835. Under the Republic of Texas Victoria County was created March 17, 1836 with Victoria as the County Seat. Its Territory has since been materially reduced through the creation of other counties.
The principal industry of the people of the region during the 19th century was cattle raising. Here that industry had its origin in Texas, and Victoria County continues to the present day to be the leading cattle county of the state.
1836
[Texas star superimposed over Mexican Eagle]
1936
Erected jointly by the Government of the United States and the State of Texas
1936
Left Front Panel:
Victoria County early home of the Karankawa Indians. Region roamed by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca in 1534-1535, the first white man and companions to travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Site of the first French settlement in Texas attempted by Rene Robert Cavelier Sieur de La Salle and companions who built Fort St. Louis on Garcitas Creek in 1685. Devastated by the Karankawa Indians. Burned by members of the Alonso De Leon expedition in 1689. On its remains the Spaniards constructed Presidio de Nuestra Senora de Loreto de la Bahia Del Espiritu Santo
Right Front Panel:
as a protection for the Mission de Nuestra Senora del Espiritu Santo de Zuniga, both established by Joseph De Azlor, Marquis of Aguayo and Father Fray Agustin Patron, O.F.M. in 1722. Both moved to Mission Valley on the Guadalupe River in 1726. Moved finally to Santa Dorothea now Goliad near the San Antonio River in 1749. The area embraced by this county settled by the Colony of Martin De Leon, empresario, in 1824 who named the seat of his colony Guadalupe Victoria in honor of the President of Mexico, hero of its struggle for Independence."
And from the National Register of Historic Properties application for the Victoria Monument, some information about the sculptor, Raoul Jossett, known for his beautiful artworks in the Art Deco style:
"Raoul Jean Josset (1899-1957)
“Frenchman by birth, American by law, and Texan by preference,” Raoul Josset, the most prolific sculptor of Texas Centennial monuments, was born in Fours, Nièvre, France on December 9, 1899.18 Educated at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and winner of the prestigious Prix de Rome, Josset also apprenticed under French sculptor Émile-Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929). He immigrated to Chicago in 1927 and remained in the United States for the rest of his life.
Josset’s career gained momentum in the early 1930s, and his aesthetic, influenced by French Art Deco and classical sculpture, was popular to American architects. His early commissions in Chicago included
architectural decorations on the Palmolive building (1929), the Carbon & Carbide building (1929), and at the Century of Progress International Exposition (1933).
During this period, he was introduced to architect Donald Nelson and the two collaborated on projects for Chicago’s Century of Progress fair. On Nelson’s recommendation, architect George Dahl invited Josset to Texas in 1935 to create commemorative statues for the Central Centennial Exposition at Fair Park in Dallas. The Texas Centennial was the most intensely-creative period of Josset’s career. Upon completion of his commissions at Fair Park in 1936, the State Board of Control hired Josset to design monuments and statues for the statewide Centennial.
In three years, he completed 35 monuments and 5 statues, all commemorating subjects in Texas history. Josset’s commissions slowed after the Centennial, and he briefly pursued work outside of Texas. He returned to Dallas permanently in 1948 to share a studio with a friend, Jose Martin. There he created his final works thatincluded: a 75-foot-long stone bas-relief for the Nelson-designed Grand Lodge Masonic Temple in Waco (1949), statue of St. Francis of Assisi in Lubbock (1953), and a statue of Sam Houston for the Masonic Temple in Waco (1957).
Just as he was enjoying renewed professional success, Josset died suddenly in 1957. He told friends that he felt Texans appreciated his talents, saying “Texans seek [art] with meaning and…they choose with an eye of permanence, thinking in terms of years, generations, maybe forever.”"