Raised in Rumelange at the beginning of the 20^th century, Albert Hames grew up in a village that was strongly involved in the Luxembourg steel industry. While his mother was a housekeeper, his father worked for the national railways. In 1924, Albert Hames started studying sculpture at the nearby École professionnelle (‘Vocational school’) in Esch-sur-Alzette. He worked as an intern at the carpentry Michel Hammerel in the same city in 1929. Hames took evening classes in sculpting and drawing in Luxembourg City in 1929 and completed an internship with Luxembourg sculptor Albert Kratzenberg from 1930 to 1931. As a student at the Staatliche Berufsfachschule für Holzschnitzerei (‘State Vocational School for Woodcarving’) in Oberammergau, Bavaria, he studied woodcarving in 1934. He pursued his artistic training at Munich’s Academy of Fine Arts in 1936 and attended courses in the subject of restauration at the Landesamt für Denkmalpflege in the same town in 1937 (‘State Office for the Preservation of Monuments’). In 1938, he attended the École supérieure des Beaux-Arts (‘College of Fine Arts’) in Paris. Having returned to Luxembourg, Hames started working as an art restorer in 1939. Between 1942 and 1943, he returned to Munich in order to complete his degree in restauration. From 1946 until his retirement in 1975, he simultaneously worked part-time as an art teacher at his former secondary school, the École professionnelle in Esch. He spent the rest of his time restoring Gothic and Baroque statues as well as paintings at Luxembourg’s State Museum and churches, which had been damaged during the war. Moreover, he was commissioned with the creation of a great number of sculptures in churches and the public space from 1951 onwards.

As a specialist in the restauration of old sculptures, he was above all involved in restoring and conserving heritage during and after the war. In 1945 to 1963, the State Museum rented parts of Hames’ home in Rumelange in order to install a restauration workshop (Persin et al. 134). 

Towards the end of the Second World War, a found munition exploded in his hands. Thereby, he burnt his face and partially lost sight on one eye. He married in 1953; his wife occasionally posed as a model for him. After his retirement, he accepted fewer commissions and created sculptures according to his personal ideas.

Most of his artistic work was created in the context of commissions by public administrations and the clergy. Hence, prevailing themes included biblical scenes and figures, miners and soldiers. He executed them in a figurative manner using wood, stone and metal. His designs commonly show straight lines, sharp edges and nearby no ornamentation. Personal works that he created after his retirement reveal shapes that are more organic and tend towards abstraction. Hereby, the artist thematised motherhood, among other things. He was experimental with his personal art, which can be illustrated by the fact that he sometimes equipped his sculptures with small electronic motors.

As Hames’ artistic work was mostly created for the public space, he did not participate in many exhibitions during his lifetime. In 1996, his native village hosted a solo exhibition. In 2007, a group show was organised uniting the works of Rumelange artists Félix Corrent, Foni Tissen, Émile Kirscht and Hames. In 2022, Spektrum in Rumelange opened as a hybrid space combining an arts centre and tourist accommodation in the artist’s former home and studio.

For what is known, Hames did not collaborate with other artists. Yet, he had rather close relationships with his commissioners, such as bishop Léon Lommel and museum curator Georges Schmitt. Likewise, he worked closely together with architects, such as Léon Loschetter or Pierre Reuter, when he created reliefs, statues or furniture for churches. 

His creations can be found in the collections of Luxembourg communes and the Musée national d’archéologie, d’histoire et d’art (MNAHA) in Luxembourg. Among the most visible works in the public space are the war memorial installed inside Luxembourg’s central station (1948), a stone relief in the basilica of Echternach (1952/53) or the double-sided stone friezes in the choir of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Luxembourg City (1963).

In 1933, Hames became a member of the Cercle Artistique de Luxembourg (CAL).

Theologist René Ludmann and theologist and art historian Alex Langini claim that Hames was the first Luxembourger to have followed specific academic studies for the restoration of works of art. Church historian Michel Schmitt considered Hames part of a heterogeneous group of Luxembourg sculptors composed of Aurelio Sabbatini, Albert Kratzenberg, Leon Nosbusch, Josy Jungblut, Emile Hulten and Charles Kohl (25). According to Schmitt, Hames’ sculptures allude to the Baroque at the levels of body structure, facial expression and the play of pleats in fabric (28). He compares Hames’ work to that of Michel Weiler (unknown - 1805)(28).

Works Cited

Ludmann, René. "Albert Hames (1910-1989)." In: Nos Cahiers. Lëtzebuerger Zäitschrëft Fir Kultur 2 (1995): 21-34, Ill. Print.

Persin, Patrick-Gilles and Andrée Fonck. Albert Hames, Sculpteur. Luxembourg: Patrick-Gilles Persin, 2008:134, Print.

Langini, Alex. "Albert Hames - "Restaurateur Du Musée". In: Nos Cahiers. Lëtzebuerger Zäitschrëft Fir Kultur 2 (1995): 35-41, Ill. Print.

Schmitt, Michel. "Die religiöse Bildwelt des Rümlinger Künstlers Albert Hames." Nos Cahiers. Lëtzebuerger Zäitschrëft Fir Kultur 2 (1995): 25-34. Print.