Summer of Sculpture 12th August to 28th September 2022
SUMMER OF SCULPTURE 12th August - 28th September 2022 66-67 South Audley Street, London Mayfair
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This summer we are delighted to exhibit at our gallery in South Audley Street, a superb selection of fine 19th century sculpture from large life-size marbles to more intimate bronzes and figural groups, If you are able to visit we would be delighted to welcome you. Summer of Sculpture 12th August 28th September 66-67 South Audley Street, London W1K 2QX , U.K. Adrian
Collecting sculpture has always been linked to the ideals of connoisseurship and taste. The nineteenth century however, saw artists display an ingenuity and vision that allowed them to move away from the mere appreciation of the antique.
A new heroic and restrained neoclassicism found itself apparent in many of the great public commissions, while the salon and public exhibitions of the period encouraged an appeal to the novel, sentimental often sensational. Alan
A half-life size white statuary marble figure. Signed to the base 'F. ANDREINI FIRENZE'. With its delicate features and graceful pose this fine sculpture is a charming example of Italian Romantic Sculpture of the second half of the 19th century. FERDINANDO ANDREINI (1843-1922) 'La Bagnante' (The Bather) White Statuary Marble, Italy, Circa 1910 Dimensions Height : 124 cm 49 inches Price £110,000 Ref: B76400
Signed 'I Bonheur' and with foundry stamp PEYROL EDITEUR'. Bronze, rich mid-brown patina. The name Isidore Jules Bonheur is synonymous with the great animalier school of sculptors of the late 19th century. Amongst Bonheur’s wide variety of animal sculptures exhibited at the Salon, there were a number of mounted equestrian models, including three designs of jockeys on horseback shown in 1864, 1879 and 1886. The most famous of these is Le Grand Jockey, of which the present cast is a rare, large, and fine example. First exhibited at the 1879 Salon in bronze, under the title ‘Un Jockey’, it was displayed alongside another equestrian group, 'Un cavalier', époque de Louis XV (nos. 4817 and 4816 respectively). Exhibited again four years later at the Exposition Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1883 and for the third time at the Universal Exhibition of 1889, where Bonheur received the prestigious Medaille d'Or. Le Grand Jockey was subsequently edited in four different sizes, the present cast being an example of the second largest.
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ISIDORE JULES BONHEUR (1827-1901) ‘Le Grand Jockey ‘ Patinated Bronze, France, Circa 1902 Height : 62 cm 24 inches : 75 cm 30 inches : 16 cm 6 inches Price £85,000 Ref: B76870
A large patinated bronze group after a model by Jean Pierre Cortot, cast by Ferdinand Barbedienne. Jean-Pierre Cortot (d. 1843) studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris. After winning the Prix de Rome in 1809, he returned to Paris as a professor at the Ecole. Cortot exhibited the plaster model of this sculpture at the Salon in 1822. In 1831, Louis-Philippe, recently crowned, commissioned a marble version from Cortot which is now exhibited in the Louvre. Barbedienne edited the model in four sizes, the present cast being an example of the largest.
JEAN-PIERRE CORTOT (D. 1843) 'The Soldier of Marathon' Bronze, France, Circa 1880 Ref: B71666
Dimensions Height : 96 cm 38 inches Length : 107 cm 42 inches Depth : 39 cm 15 inches Price £55,000
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Signed and dated: 'h. boissonnade 1905'. This sensual depiction of a female nude reclining on a bearskin rug exhibits a fin de siècle fascination for expressions of visceral ecstasy wrought in the female form. In nineteenth century French sculpture the touchpaper was the unveiling of Auguste Clésinger’s (1814-1883) marble Femme piquée par un Serpent in 1847 of which it was commented in the La Revue des Deux Mondes stated: "[...] the title and the serpent are concessions made to the jury! Who do they laugh at? This woman does not suffer, she enjoys!". Henri Paul Marc Boissonade of 5 Rue Benoville, Paris, is recorded for exhibiting ‘Femme à sa toilette’ at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1913. PAUL MARC BOISSONADE 'Ecstasy' A White Statuary Marble Figure, France, Dated 1905. 27 cm 84 33 33 cm 13 Price £45,000 Ref: B76300
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First exhibited at the Paris Exposition Universelle 1900, this exceptional patinated bronze group was edited in three sizes by the fondeur Susse Frères, with the current example being the largest at 147 cm.
'Le Puits Qui Parle' (The Speaking Well)
PAUL EUGÈNE MENGIN (1853-1937)
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Patinated Bronze, France, Circa 1910 82 32 47 19 Price £55,000 Ref: B74980
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Signed to the cast 'P MENGIN', and inscribed 'Susse Fres Edts, Paris', and with foundry mark 'SUSSE FRERES EDITEURS/ PARIS'.
The group is illustrated in the 'The Paris Exhibition 1900',d. D. Coral Thomsen, Art Journal, 1901, Vol 1; p.95. This charming sculptural group continued to appear in Susse Frères printed catalogues of works until 1905.
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JEAN-LÉON GÉRÔME (1824-1904) 'Corinth' Gilt-Bronze With Traces of Polychrome Decoration, Enamel, Turquoise and Opal. France, Circa 1905
The present gilt bronze model, cast by the renowned Parisian foundry Siot Decauville, is directly drawn from what is undoubtedly the most iconic sculpture of Jean-Léon Gérôme’s oeuvre. The original plaster model (Musée d’Orsay ), created in 1903, was the last sculpture made by Gérôme before his death. This painted plaster is a striking scale model of illusionism, enhanced with jewellery made of wire and coloured wax. It was found in Gérôme’s studio after his death, along with a marble in the course of execution. Finished by Gérôme’s long term assistant Louis-Emile Décorchemont (1851-1921), the marble (collection J. Nicholson, Beverly Hills) is tinted and decorated with semi precious stones as well as with gilded bronze jewelry that was made for Gérôme by the founder Hébrard. The marble was presented posthumously at the 1904 Paris Salon as number 2922 and described as follows: "une femme nue couverte de veritable bijoux est assise sur le chapiteau d’une colonne corinthienne en marbre vert”. This sculpture is the crowning of Gérôme’s thirty years of activity as a sculptor, a sumptuous ensemble of materials allied with an extreme accuracy in the representation of the figure.
Signed J.L. Gérôme. Stamped '2135' and with the Siot Decauville foundry seal and with inscription NON LICET OMNIBUS ADIRE CORINTHUM at the front. On a gilt-bronze mounted marble pedestal signed 'MILLET'.
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Like the sculpture of Tanagra which Gérôme had exhibited in the Salon of 1890, Corinth plays with the ancient idea of an allegorical divinity protecting a city, with an added erotic dimension. The inscription at the base of the capital refers to the ancient motto Non licet omnibus adire Corinthum (not everyone can afford Corinth), which was an allusion to the prohibitive prices charged by the sacred prostitutes in the temple of Aphrodite in Corinth. Located in the Peloponnese, Corinth was a powerful and wealthy city state, famous for its ceramics, its temple of Aphrodite and for being the birth place of the third order of the classical architecture. Often qualified as opulent and luxurious in antique texts, it was also a source of fascination in the 19th century.
The sculpture was cast in a small edition by the Siot-Decauville foundry. Gerald Ackerman has recorded no more than six bronzes of Corinth, in either gold or silver and all with a slightly different finish. One is in the collection of Stuart Pivar in New York (gilt-bronze, op. cit. Romantics to Rodin) while others that appeared at auction in the past are now in private collections
Dimensions Height of sculpture : 72.5 cm 29 inches Height of pedestal : 120 cm 47 inches Price £POA Ref: B71150
Raised on a Verde Antinco marble pedestal. This characterful portrait of a boy fishing is typical of the sentimental and lively genre sculpture of the Florentine School during the last quarter of the nineteenth century which captured images from Italian pastoral and domestic Slife.imilar compositions are recorded by Pietro Bazzanti, Cesare Lapini, Ferdinando Vichi and G. Pugi. 'Giovane Pescatore' (A Fisher Boy) White and Green Alabaster, Italy, Circa 1880 Dimensions Height : 144 cm 57 inches Width : 36 cm 14 inches Depth : 42 cm 17 inches Price £28,500 Ref: B76240
ATTRIBUTED TO CHARLES CUMBERWORTH (1811 - 1852) Dimensions Height : 35 cm 14 inches Width : 35 cm 14 inches Depth : 26 cm 10 inches Price £26,000 Ref: B74592 A Pair of Louis Philippe Gilt-Bronze Allegorical Groups Depicting Music and Wine Gilt Bronze, France, Circa 1840 Dimensions Height : 43 cm 17 inches Width : 3 1 cm 12 inches Depth : 17 cm 7 inches Price £26,000 Ref: B74591 A Pair of Louis Philippe of Gilt-Bronze Figural Groups, Allegorical of Hunting and Fishing Gilt-Bronze, France, Circa 1840 ATTRIBUTED TO CHARLES CUMBERWORTH (1811 - 1852)
Signed: Prof. I. Bastiani This exquisitely detailed marble statue is carved in the round with great skill and refinement. It shows Eve’s temptation, her right hand clutching the apple, looking to her left with eyes raised heavenwards. Her gaze is filled with a mixture of curiosity and fear. ILDEBRANDO BASTIANI (1867- 1936) ‘Original Sin’ White Statuary Marble, Italy, Circa 1900 Dimensions Height : 140 cm 55 inches Price £110,0000 B76700
Petrilli skilfully combines rare specimen marbles: red onyx, brèche violette marble, yellow sienna marble, lapis lazuli and malachite, with moulded glass and bronze, to create a harmonious and sophisticated composition - an intimate moment frozen in time; reminiscent of the neo-classical Greco-Roman subjects of artists such as Lawrence Alma Tadema and John William Godward.
ARISTIDE PETRILLI (1868-1930) 'A Declaration' Specimen Marble, Crystal, Silvered Bronze, Italy, Circa 1900 : 145 cm 57 76 cm 30 40 cm 16 Price £120,000 Ref: B72531
'Signed 'PROF. A.Petrilli-FIRENZE'.
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This remarkable neo classical style figural group depicts a courting couple in conversation, seated on a bench. The reverse of the group is centred by an exquisite cameo roundel depicting Apollo and his chariot and the whole is raised on a revolving verde antico marble pedestal.
LOUIS-ERNEST BARRIAS (1841-1905) 'La
Gilt bronze,
This alluring bronze figure is a finely cast example of Barrias's most celebrated work, an homage to advances made in scientific exploration and a masterpiece of early art nouveau. The figure depicts a young woman, the allegory of Nature, removing her veil to reveal her face and bare breasts to the cold gaze of science. The first bronze casts exhibited by Susse were shown in various sizes and to great critical acclaim at the 1900 Exposition Universelle. Awarded a prestigious Grand Prix at the Liège Exhibition of 1905, the renowned bronzier Théodore Millet deemed the model a tour de force for the Susse firm and proclaimed it 'the finest of the works exhibited'. Nature se dévoilant devant la Science' France, Circa 1905
Dimensions Height : 59 cm 23 inches Width : 2 6 cm 10 inches Depth : 16 cm 6 inches Price £32,000 Ref: B73870
The models attributed to Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (French, 1824-1887). Each with oval stamp 'VOR PAILLARD / FANTS DES BRONZE / A PARIS' VICTOR PAILLARD (FRENCH, 1805-1886) A Pair Of Classically Robed Maidens Bearing Urns Patinated Bronze, France, Circa 1865 Dimensions Height : 103 cm 41 inches Width : 26 cm 10 inches Depth : 26 cm 10 inches Price £44,000 Ref: B76100
A finely modelled and patinated bronze figural group by Adolphe Itasse, after the painting of the same title by the celebrated artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau, painted in 1886. Signed ‘A. Itasse’ and dated 1887, further inscribed ‘W.BOUGUEREAU INV’ and stamped 43857. The marble base with a plaque inscribed ‘L'Amour Vainqueur W. Bouguereau INVT’. ADOLPHE ITASSE (1830-1893) ‘L’Amour Vainqueur’ Patinated Bronze, France, Dated 1887 Dimensions Height : 70 cm 28 inches Width : 33 cm 13 inches Depth : 25 cm 10 inches Price £24,000 Ref: B70750
Carved in the round from a single block of marble, ‘Rosa Senza Spine’ is an exquisitely balanced piece which shows extraordinary skill, a rare survivor showing the sculptural virtuosity of the Florentine school at the close of the nineteenth century. Exhibited: Probably the stand of 'E. and C. Lapini Bros. and Sons' at the St. Louis World's Fair, Missouri, 1904. Provenance: The Missouri Athletic Club, Downtown Clubhouse, 405 Washington Ave., St. Louis, USA. CESARE LAPINI (1848 - AFTER 1893) 'Rosa Senza Spine' or Nymph Entwined in a Rosebush White Statuary Marble, Italy, Circa, 1900 Dimensions Height : 129 cm 51 inches Price £130,000 Ref: B76101
‘A rare pair of cream painted and gilt decorated cast iron busts and pedestals allegorical of Spring and Winter. The pedestals with an engraved plaque inscribed ‘FONDERIES DU VAL D'OSNE 58 BD VOLTAIRE - PARIS’. This important pair of allegorical busts and accompanying stands are illustrated in the Val d’Osne catalogue of 1900. FONDERIES DU VAL D'OSNE 'Spring and Winter' Cast iron, France, Circa 1900 Dimensions Height : 203 cm 80 inches Width : 40 cm 16 inches Depth : 40 cm 16 inches Price £24,000 Ref: B70751
A large and important multipatinated bronze figure of an Arab Warrior by Henri Honoré Plé, modelled as an Arab warrior, with sword drawn and crescent tipped standard held aloft, with a rich multi-patinated patina heightened with gilding. Signed Henri Plé to the base. HENRI HONORÉ PLÉ (1853-1922) 'Le Mahdi' Multipatinated Bronze, France, Circa 1880 Dimensions Height : 140 cm 55 inches Width : 55 cm 22 inches Depth : 50 cm 20 inches Price £75,000 Ref: B68171
The Bullmastiff was developed as a guard dog in the nineteenth century by cross breeding an English Mastiff with an Old English Bulldog. The Spanish Mastiff was bred as a guard dog and specialised in protecting livestock from wolves. Both breeds are famed for their strength, size, and speed and yet in spite of their fearsome reputations as guard dogs par excellence, the sculptor renders them most sympathetically and with much character. Each with loving gaze, as if looking to their master for approval. Regarded since antiquity as the animal most loyal to man, the dog is an attribute of fidelity personified. The antecedent is ancient Roman, ‘The Jennings Dog’ or ‘The Dog of Alcibiades’ in the British Museum, of which a pair of similar mastiffs are in the Belvedere Court of the Vatican Museums.
These rare and impressive statuary marble dogs are remarkable lifelike portraits of two of the most fearsome breeds of guard dog. They are conceived to guard a staircase or doorway inside a house, or outside on a portico or either side of a gate or driveway. They fulfil a symbolic role of welcoming guests or guarding against harmful visitors. Their placement atop solid ‘bleu turquin’ or Dove grey marble plinths, a costly and rare Tuscan marble mined since antiquity, is indicative of their being especially prized.
RAFFAELLO ROMANELLI (1856–1928) A Pair of Life Size Statuary Marble Dogs On Pedestals White Statuary and Bleu Turquin Marble, Italy, Circa 1900
In the nineteenth century so popular was the Dog of Alcibiades that any estate of note was incomplete without a marble or Coade stone reproduction, often as a pair, and ‘Dogs of Alcibiades’ today grace the grounds of many princely collections including Petworth House, West Sussex and Blickling Hall, Norfolk.
Height of Spanish Mastiff : 87cm 34.25 inches
Price £150,000 Ref: B76120
Height of Bullmastiff: 92cm 36.5 inches
Dimensions Total height : 173 cm 36.5 inches
By the middle of the nineteenth century, the fashion for keeping dogs as domestic pets meant that on occasion wealthy owners commissioned portraits to commemorate "Man's best friend". Most famous is the marble statue of Queen Victoria’s collie ‘Noble’ sculpted by Joseph Edgar Boehm and dated 1884 (Osborn House, RCIN 41058). Another pair of statuary marble dogs of this same model can be found on the terrace at Peles Castle in Romania. A fairy-tale neo-Renaissance palace, Peles Castle in the Carpathian Mountains was built between 1875 and 1914 as a retreat by King Carol I of Romania (1839 1914). The Florentine sculptor Raffaello Romanelli (1856–1928) is recorded to have executed much of the statuary for Peles Castle and the attribution is made accordingly. Studio Galleria Romanelli in Florence has been consulted on the attribution, and although much of the Romanelli documentation was destroyed in World War II, have commented that these dogs exhibit Raffaello Romanelli’s style. The attribution is strengthened because Raffaello Romanelli produced much of the sculpture at Peles Castle.
Signed in hiragana script 'Seiya Zo'. This large bronze figural group is naturalistically cast with a finely chased bull elephant fighting off two fierce attacking tigers. The elephants tusks of carved wood. GENRYUSAI SEIYA (1868–1912) A Group of an Elephant And Tigers Patinated Bronze, Wood, Japan, Meiji Period, Circa 1890 Dimensions Height : 212 cm 83 inches Width : 40 cm 16 inches Depth : 40 cm 16 inches Price £22,000 Ref: B74650
The design is characteristic of the playful and inventive approach of Ullmann's work , marking a transition between the naturalism of art nouveau and the stylised aesthetics of art deco. The aquarium was almost certainly cast by the Arthur Rubenstein Foundry in Vienna.
The aquarium is set on a Verte de Mere marble base and raised on a conforming cast iron stand with a lattice frieze inset with a marble tablet with a pair of crossed oars and raised on tapering legs united by a cross stretcher.
THEODORE ULLMANN (1903-1996) An Unusual Bronze Figural Aquarium Patinated Bronze, Austria, Circa 1930 Dimensions Height : 121 cm 48 inches Width : 82 cm 32 inches Depth : 52 cm 20 inches Price £24,000 Ref: B75431
Signed 'TH. ULLMANN', and stamped 'MADE IN AUSTRIA'.
This unusual figural aquarium is of octagonal shape with glass side panels, cast to one end with a swan about to take flight and to the other with a pair of bathing beauties on a rocky outcrop. Modelled with great charm and dynamism, one bather sits watching attentively as her companion tentatively dips her toe in the water, her hair billowing and her arms outstretched for balance.
AFTER JEAN GOUJON (1510-1566) A Pair of River Nymphs Patinated bronze, France, Circa 1840 Dimensions Height : 27 cm 11 inches Width : 44 cm 17 inches Depth : 20 cm 8 inches Price £9,500 Ref: B75775 These charming figures are inspired by the nymphs on the monumental ‘Fontaine des Innocents’ in Paris. Originally called the ‘Fountain of the Nymphs’, it was constructed between 1547 and 1550 by Pierre Lescot and Jean Goujon. AFTER JEAN GOUJON (1510-1566) ‘Il Passe Pas’ (He Shall Not Pass) Statuary marble, France, Circa 1900 Dimensions Height : 33 cm 13 inches Width : 67 cm 26 inches Depth : 30 cm 12 inches Price £16,000 Ref: B68100 A white marble figural group of Venus and Cupid by Henri Weigele. Signed ‘H. Weigele’ and titled ‘IL PASSE PAS’
A gilt-bronze fgure by François Linke, sculpted by Léon Messagé. Signed ‘F.Linke’. Modelled as a sculptural centrepiece with a cloudborne figure of ‘Cupid arming’ atop a brèche violette marble base. Titled ‘L‘Enfant Guerre’ it depicts a martial rendering of Cupid, allegorical of the power of France and was also employed by Linke to mount furniture albeit then usually modeled just as a figure and without the clouds below, for example placed to the centre of a stretcher between table legs. - 1946) Guerre’ France, 1880 Ref: B70720
‘L‘Enfant
FRANÇOIS LINKE (1855
Gilt Bronze,
Circa
Dimensions Height : 41 cm 16 inches Width : 32 cm 13 inches Depth : 27 cm 11 inches Price £48,000
Signed 'AUG MOREAU'. This finely carved marble figural group depicts a young female putto seated on a naturalistic base, a finger held to her lips and with a small love bird perched on her shoulder. The figure sits on a naturalistic base with a circular socle and is raised on a fluted dwarf rouge levanto marble column and plinth base, embellished with gilt bronze laurel leaves and acanthus, on toupie feet. LOUIS AUGUSTE MOREAU (1855-1919) 'The Secret' Statuary marble, France, Circa 1880 Dimensions Height : 64 cm 25 inches Width : 30 cm 12 inches Depth : 30 cm 12 inches Price £35,000 Ref: B74820
Signed and dated 'F. Leighton 1877',numbered 'XIV' (fourteen) and with foundry inscription 'Pubd by Ernest Brown & Phillips / at the Leicester Galleries, Leicester Square London'. Conceived 1877, this cast circa 1908.
Cast by Ernest Brown & Phillips, Leicester Galleries, London, from the model by Frederic, Lord Leighton (1830 1896), England, Circa 1910 A patinated bronze statuette of 'An Athlete Wrestling with a Python', cast by Ernest Brown & Phillips, Leicester Galleries, London, from the model by Frederic, Lord Leighton (1830 1896), England, Circa 1910. The nude male athlete modelled contrapposto with his weight resting on this right leg and the serpent coiled around his left leg. His right arm outstretched with hand throttling the hissing serpent. Finely cast, detailed and retaining its original dark brown patina of good lustre.
FREDERIC, LORD LEIGHTON (1830-1896) 'Athlete Wrestling with a Python', Patinated Bronze, England, Circa 1910
Provenance: The Collection of Seymour Stein, New York.
Bronze with dark brown patina
Leighton's paintings far outnumber his sculpture but the critic A.L Baldry said Leighton was 'by instinct and habit of mind, more a sculptor than a painter', that he 'looked at nature with a sculptor's eye', with a 'technical process [...] closely akin to modelling' (A.L. Baldry, Leighton, London, 1908, pp. 75-76.).
Leighton conceived his Athlete Wrestling with a Python when modelling three dimensional sketches to realise figures for his major painting The Daphnephoria (1876; Lady Lever Art Gallery, Liverpool). It is representative of his interest in classical mythology as best evidenced by his painting Hercules Wrestling with Death for the body of Alcestis (1869 1871; Wadsworth Atheneum, Connecticut) and Hellenic art, most obviously the writhing masculinity of the ancient Greek statue The Laocoön. 'When I was at work upon the Daphnephoria it occurred to me to model some of the figures [...]. It was at this time that the idea of my Athlete struggling with a Python came into my mind.' ('Artist as Craftsmen, no. I: Sir Frederic Leighton, Bart., P.R.A., as a Modeller in Clay', The Studio, no. 1 (1893) p. 6).
A seminal work in the history of art and arguably the most influential piece of British sculpture of the 19th Century, Leighton’s Athlete Wrestling with a Python inspired a whole generation of sculptors as the definitive work of the ‘New Sculpture’ movement. Its timeless appeal lies as much in the depiction of virile naturalism as the dichotomy of good and evil. The Victorian audience speculated whether man or serpent would win this life and death struggle. The Times newspaper supposed the athlete's left arm to be ineffective: 'The Struggle will soon be over and then heaven help the man!'.
Leighton was persuaded by his friend the French sculptor Jules Dalou to work up the initial small model into a life size sculpture and the monumental bronze was cast with considerable technical expertise from his protégé, the sculptor Thomas Brock, and shown to much acclaim at the Royal Academy in 1877. Purchased by the Chantrey Bequest the life-size bronze remains at the Tate Gallery, London, its importance cemented by it being awarded a gold medal at the Paris Exhibition the following year. The original plaster cast was given to the Royal Academy by the artist in 1886, and in 1891 a marble version was commissioned by Carl Jacobsen, the son of the founder of the Carlsberg Breweries, and is today preserved at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
In 1902, the brothers Cecil and Wilfred Phillips opened The Leicester Galleries in London’s Leicester Square. They were joined a year later by Ernest Brown. The Leicester Galleries was a leading venue for the presentation and sale of modern art in the early twentieth century. Athlete Wrestling with a Python was published by the Leicester Galleries in two sizes, 38½ inches and 20 ½ inches high. A period advertisement specifies that the larger of the two sizes was limited to an edition of ten, however only three such examples are known: one at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (purchased from the Leicester Galleries, 1910), one at the Union Club, Sydney and one sold Christie’s, London, 11 July 2013, lot 8. The smaller of the two sizes was cast in an edition of no more than thirty, of which the present bronze is one such example and is numbered XIV (fourteen). Other examples in museum collections include cast number IV (four) at Anglesey Abbey (NT 515041) and number XIX (nineteen) at the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery (1973P42).
Dimensions Height : 52 cm 21 inches Width : 21 cm 8 inches Depth : 30 cm 12 inches Price £POA Ref: B76370 The London Letter of The American Art News, 24 October 1908, notes “Messrs. Brown and Phillips have also recently published a limited edition of bronze statuettes, 20 ½ inches high, of the late Lord Leighton's famous statue, Athlete Struggling With a Python” (VOL. VII. No. 2., p. 5).
1880 Dimensions Total Height : 230 cm 91 inches Height of Figure: 150 cm 59 inches Price £160,000 Ref: B70640
PIETRO BAZZANTI (1825-1895) ‘The
Multipatinated Bronze,
An important Florentine white marble figural group, by Pietro Bazzanti raised on a carved Rosso Levanto Pedestal. Incised to the base ‘P. Bazzanti , Firenze’. The sculpture depicts the Pharaoh’s daughter in classical dress and wearing the Egyptian Vulture headdress, holding the infant Moses who plays with strings of pearls around her neck. This finely carved figure by Bazzanti, epitomises the romantic historicist style popular in the last quarter of the 19th century. The figure of the Pharaoh’s daughter is identified by her striking and finely modelled headdress. The vulture headdress became an attribute of Egyptian royal women in the Old Kingdom, originally linking the queen with Nekhbet, the tutelary goddess of Upper Egypt, and came to underscore the divinity of queenship. Finding of Moses’ France, Circa
Signed to the bronze base ‘FALGUIERE’ and inscribed ‘F. BARBEDIENNE. FONDEUR’. With serial number WB 96762 . Barbedienne illustrates a drawing of this torchère on page 63 of his 1886 catalogue ‘Bronzes D’ Art’. It is listed as ‘Porte-Lumière, style Renaissance’, also indicating that it was modelled by Falguière and that a companion piece was also available modelled by Paul Dubois. An example of this singular Falguière torchère is in the musée national du château de Compiègne. ALEXANDRE FALGUIÈRE (1831-1900) Porte-Lumière, style Renaissance’ Patinated Bronze, France, Circa 1880 Dimensions Height : 212 cm 83 inches Width : 40 cm 16 inches Depth : 40 cm 16 inches Price £22,000 Ref: B74650
Patinated
Dimensions Height : 39 cm 15 inches Width : 55 cm 22 inches Depth : 18 cm 7 inches Price
ISIDORE-JULES BONHEUR
A pair of large and finely patinated bronze models of a standing bull and a running cow after models by Isidor Jules Bonheur, each cast on a naturalistic base. Signed 'I BONHEUR' and stamped 'PEYROL EDITEUR'. Bonheur was a regular exhibitor at the Paris Salon and his naturalistic depiction of farm animals, including cattle, was one of his most popular subjects. The bronze was cast by his brother-in-law, Hippolyte Peyrol, who ran one of the most successful art foundries in Paris at this time. (1827-1901) Standing Bull and a Running Cow' Bronze, France, Circa 1890 £26,000 Ref: B73850
'A
This dramatic and large silvered bronze figure by Colinet depicts a nude female figure in an elegant pose balancing a ball on her fingers and toes. The figure is raised on a stepped variegated onyx base. CLAIRE J. R. COLINET (1880 - 1950) 'The Juggler' Silvered Bronze, France, Circa 1925 Dimensions Height : 52 cm 20 inches Width : 33 cm 13 inches Depth : 17 cm 7 inches Price £12,000 Ref: B73240 A fine white marble figure of a kneeling cherub, signed to the base 'Pio Fedi Faceva'. PIO FEDI (1815-1892) Kneeling Cherub White statuary marble, Italy, Circa 1860 Dimensions Height : 59 cm 23 inches Width : 33 cm 13 inches Depth : 33 cm 13 inches Price £17,000 Ref: B72991
The base inscribed 'Prof. P. Romanelli. Firenze'. Romanelli was particularly renowned for his sensuous treatment of mythological, allegorical and biblical female figures. He exhibited a figure of Ruth, at the Paris Salon in 1851. PASQUALE ROMANELLI (1812-1887) Ruth Gleaning White Statuary Marble, Italy, Circa 1870 Dimensions Height : 114 cm 45 inches Width : 66 cm 26 inches Depth : 61 cm 24 inches Price £68,000 Ref: B62896
'Inscribed 'L.MADRASSI.PARIS'. With Gervais foundry cachet and stamped 'MEDAILLE D'OR/EXPOSITION UNIVERSELLE DE 1900'. This finely patinated bronze group depicts the figure of Innocence, finely cast with billowing drapery being tormented by two winged cherub figures emblematic of Cupid. The figure is raised on a brèche violette marble base. LUCA MADRASSI (1848-1916) 'L'innocence Tourmentée Par L'amour' Patinated Bronze, France, Circa 1900 Dimensions Height : 62 cm 24 inches Diameter : 23 cm 9 inches Price £14,000 Ref: B73881
A Bronze Figure of a Horse at a Barrier by Pierre Jules Mêne. The base inscribed 'P.J.Mêne' PIERRE-JULES MÊNE (1810-1871) Horse at a Barrier Patinated Bronze, France, Circa 1880 Dimensions Height : 30 cm 12 inches Width : 37 cm 15 inches Depth : 15 cm 6 inches Price £7,000 Ref: B56273
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An Art Deco Statuary Marble Figure of Cleopatra. The half lifesize standing figure posed with her right foot raised and looking to dexter, in front of a recumbent sphinx raised on a stepped entablature. On a Siena marble pedestal carved with panelled front. Intertwining history and legend, the story of Cleopatra (68-30 B.C.) has inspired artists for centuries. The present depiction dates to a period of Egyptomania inspired by Howard Carter's discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922. Egyptian motifs in turn informed dress and high fashion during the Roaring Twenties and in the decorative arts, became an integral part of the language of Art Deco.
'Cleopatra' Statuary Marble, Italy, Early 20th Century Figure: cm 47 cm 63 Price £38,000 Ref: B75130
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A fine patinated bronze figural group after a model by 'François Truphème', Cast by 'Thiebaut Frères'. Signed 'Fois Truphème 1863' and 'fdu par Vor Thiebaut'. This impressive patinated bronze figure depicts Jochebed carrying the infant Moses in a basket upon her dead. It is raised on its original carved wooden pedestal stand. FRANÇOIS TRUPHÈME (1820-1888) Moses and Jochebed Patianted Bronze, France, Dated 1863 Dimensions Total Height : 195 cm 77 inches Height of Figure: 105 cm 41inches Price £28,000 Ref: B71950
An important multipatinated bronze Orientalist group by Henri Honoré Plé. Engraved to the back 'Henri Plé / 1883'. HENRI HONORÉ PLÉ (1853-1922) 'Odalisque' Multipatinated Bronze, France, Dated 1883 Dimensions Height : 61 cm 24 inches Width : 52 cm 20 inches Depth : 25 cm 10 inches Price £28,000 Ref: B71903
A fine patinated bronze figural group, after Claude Michael Clodion. Inscribed 'Clodion' to the base and 'BACCHANTES DE CLODION'. AFTER CLODION (1738-1814) 'Bacchantes' Patinated Bronze, France, Circa 1870 Dimensions Height : 76 cm 30 inches Diameter : 34 cm 13 inches Price £12,000 Ref: B73324
Signed to the base 'Raoul Larche 1891'. This finely cast parcel-gilt bronze figure depicts Cupid and Psyche with Zephyr. FRANÇOIS-RAOUL LARCHE (1860-1912) 'Cupid & Psyche' Parcel-Gilt and Patinated Bronze, France, Dated 1891 Dimensions Height : 71 cm 28 inches Width : 47 cm 19 inches Depth : 33 cm 13 inches Price £12,500 Ref: B71470
Signed: 'Ces: Fantacchiotti fece Firenze' and inscribed: 'Fond: Galli Firenze'. The figure is finely modelled in bronze with a rich multi-patinated patina heightened with gilding. The naturalistic pose and fine detail capture a wonderful sense of vitality and immediacy. The Galli Foundry cast several bronzes during the late 19th and early 20th century including the statue of George Washington by Richard Henry Park (1832 1902) (City of Milwaukee, 1885). CESARE FANTACHIOTTI 'Egyptian Dancer' Multipatinated bronze, Italy, Circa 1880 Dimensions Height : 97 cm 38 inches Width : 60 cm 24 inches Depth : 40 cm 16 inches Price £28,000 Ref: B68680
A fine patinated bronze putto figure emblematic of architecture, after Claude Michel Clodion. Standing at 55 cm (22 inches) tall this finely cast and modelled putto figure is seated on a naturalistic rocky outcrop and holds aloft a pair of dividers in one hand and a ruler in the other. The sculpture is raised on a gilt-bronze rocaille base with scrolled feet. AFTER CLODION, CLAUDE MICHEL (1738-1814) 'Architecture' Patinated Bronze, France, Circa 1890 Dimensions Height : 55 cm 22 inches Width : 33 cm 13 inches Depth : 33 cm 13 inches Price £5,500 Ref: B73171
Dimensions Height : 81 cm 32 inches Price £34,000 Ref:
JEAN-LÉON
'La joueuse de boules', often referred to as 'Danseuse au trois masques' was exhibited at the Salon in 1902 carved in marble and tinted with pigments, the artist also executed the composition in polychrome ivory and in bronze. It shows a nude playing a game in the antique tradition, but of Gérôme's invention, where balls must be dropped into the open mouths of the masks below, without the player moving her feet.
Gérôme painted two self-portraits at work on the large marble version of this subject, also in 1902, one of which is in the collection of the Musée Garret, Vesoul (Ackerman no. 474). GÉRÔME (1824 - 1904) 'La Joueuse de Boules' Gilt-bronze, France, Circa 1902 B76840
Louis-Ernest Barrias (1841 - 1905) Louis Ernest Barrias was one of the most celebrated and influential sculptors of the late nineteenth century. Along with contemporaries such as Batholdi (of Statue of Liberty fame), he was influential in re inventing a new sophisticated approach to allegorical representation, evident in the romantic figure of Nature Revealing Herself, but also in handling themes of modernity such as his Allegory to Electricity for the Gallery of Machines at the 1889 Exposition Universelle. Born in Paris into a family of well known artists Louis Ernest started his career as a painter. He studied under Léon Cogniet, before later taking up sculpture under Pierre-Jules Cavelier and following his admittance to the École des Beaux Arts in Paris 1858, François Jouffroy. In 1865 Barrias won the Prix de Rome and was involved in the decoration of the Paris Opéra and the Hôtel de la Païva in the Champs-Élysées. In 1878 he was made a knight of the Legion of Honour, an officer in 1881, and a commander in 1900. Barrias replaced Dumont at the Institut de France in 1884 and succeeded Cavelier as professor at the École des Beaux-Arts. Ferdinando Andreini (1843-1922) Ferdinando Andreini was born in Settignano, north-east of Florence. He studied under the sculptor Ulysse Cambi (1807 1895) a Professor at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze. Andreini specialised in works and figures inspired by nature and exhibited in various salons from 1861, both in Florence and in Turin. In the last quarter of the 19th century, he created a series of allegorical nude and semi-nude maidens such as "Primavera", "Aurora - Goddess of Dawn", "Luna", "Flora" and "Pan as Herm". Other notable works include “Psyche”, "Amore Incatenato" and a statue of King Victor Emmanuel II (1820-1878) commissioned for the Santa Maria Novella Railway station in Florence.
SCULPTORS
In addition to sculpture the Bazzanti workshop was also known for the production of spectacular specimen marble table tops for the grand tour.
Isidore-Jules Bonheur (1827-1901) Bonheur was a regular exhibitor at the Paris Salon and his naturalistic depiction of farm animals, including cattle, was one of his most popular subjects. The bronze was cast by his brother in law, Hippolyte Peyrol, who ran one of the most successful art foundries in Paris at this time.
Henri Paul Marc Boissonade of 5 Rue Benoville, Paris, is recorded for exhibiting ‘Femme à sa toilette’ at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1913. Although little recorded, in the present composition Boissonade was clearly inspired by celebrated variations of the subject such as La Grande Névrose by Jacques Loysel shown at the 1900 Paris Exposition universelle, Näckrosen (Water Lily) by the Swedish sculptor Per Hasselberg and most famous today, La Danaïde by Auguste Rodin.
Henri Paul Marc Boissonade
Florentine by birth, Bastiani was a pupil of Augusto Rivalta in Milan and worked at one time in the studio of Cesare Zocchi. Favouring genre and allegorical subjects, Bastiani specialized in female figures carved with skilful balance and pose. His work was admired for being ‘fine in form and true of expression’. His most documented work and prestigious commission is the Monument to Galileo Ferraris in Livorno, which was inaugurated 18 May 1902. in.
Ildebrando Bastiani (1867-?)
Pietro Bazzanti (1825-1895) Pietro Bazzanti was one of the leading marble sculptors working in Italy in the nineteenth century. He specialised in allegorical subjects as well as pieces inspired by Antique and Renaissance sculpture. His gallery in Florence, Pietro Bazzanti e Figlio, originally Bazzanti's studio, was established in 1822 as a showroom for his work. Bazzanti exhibited with success at many of the great international exhibitions of the period, including the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1876 and the Boston exhibition of 1883. Regarded as one of the most talented sculptors of his day, his studio became a centre for other important sculptors such as Ferdinando Vichi, Cesare Lapini and Guglielmo Pugi. Such was the high regard in which he was held, that many of these sculptor's works are inscribed 'Galleria Bazzanti'.
The sculptor Fauconnier trained Carrier Belleuse before he entered the école des Beaux Arts in Paris in 1840, where he studied under David d'Angers. He later abandoned this formal training in order to develop his interest in a more decorative, Romantic style in which he showed a healthy independence.
Albert Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (1824-1887)
Augustin Pajou, Clodion (Claude Michael), (1738-1814) The son in law of sculptor Augustin Pajou, Clodion, trained in Paris in the workshops of his uncle and Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, the most successful sculptor of the time. After winning the Prix de Rome, he moved to Italy, sharing a studio with Jean Antoine Houdon and studying antique, Renaissance, and Baroque sculpture. He worked on numerous public monuments in Paris later in his life, often in the neoclassical style and his work is represented in museums throughout the world.
Upon his return to Paris in 1855 he embarked on a series of important pieces that included work at the Louvre, the Hôtel de Païva, the Opéra, the Hôtel de Ville and the Théâtre Français. As one of the most prolific and versatile sculptors of the nineteenth century, he made his reputation with the group 'Salve Regina', which was shown at the 1861 Paris Salon. His later works 'Bacchante' (1863) and 'The Messiah' (1867) won him medals and the Legion of Honour the ultimate recognition.
Albert Ernest Carrier Belleuse, was an important Parisian sculptor who signed his work 'Carrier'.
Carrier Belleuse worked in every medium, both traditional and modern, even experimenting with galvanoplasty and electroplating. His combination of materials, such as porcelain for the features of his bronze statuettes, anticipated the chryselephantine figures of the turn of the century. In 1875 he was appointed director of Works at the Sèvres porcelain factory. He employed a galaxy of rising young sculptors as assistants, who at one time or another included Rodin and Mathurin Moreau, though his own work showed little sympathy with the modern movement which Rodin was instrumental in developing. His bronzes include many busts of historic and contemporary celebrities, classical and allegorical figures, figures in period costume, nude statuettes, bas reliefs and even sculptural staircases and interior decoration.
Carrier-Belleuse made his debut at the Salon in 1851 before moving to England, where he worked in the design shop at Minton's ceramic porcelain works in Staffordshire until 1854. Here he trained under Léon Arnoux.
In the last years of the Second Empire he executed many public commissions and was highly regarded by Napoléon III, who referred to him as 'our Clodion'.
Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824 - 1904) Jean Léon Gérôme (1824 1904) was a French painter and sculptor, known for his highly accomplished academic style. A student of Paul Delaroche, he attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and exhibited frequently at the Paris Salon with great success, earning himself numerous medals. Regarded as one of the initiators of the Neo Greek style, his works were of great influence to the Parisian art world of the nineteenth century.
Although today best known as a painter of historical and mythological subjects, he created a large number of exceptional sculptures, many of which were exhibited to great acclaim at the Great Exhibitions of the period. His first work was a large bronze statue of a gladiator holding his foot on his victim, shown to the public at the 1878 Exposition Universelle.
Charles Cumberworth (1811-1852) Charles Cumberworth appears to have been born in the United States to an English father and a French mother. In Paris this proved to be a considerable handicap, for his parentage was not only the cause for rejection as a prize winner of the Prix de Rome in 1836, but also for his being awarded only three minor state commissions. Cumberworth's style is deeply indebted to his teacher, James Pradier, with whom he studied from 1829 until 1836. Sidelined by the Beaux Arts system, Cumberworth naturally aligned himself with the emerging anti-academic sculptors of Romanticism in the 1830s, such as Feuchere, Dantan, Maindron and Barre. In the absence of official patronage, he was one of the first sculptors to create his models exclusively as statuettes and sell them to editeurs, such as Susse. Appropriately, his models were also reproduced in England in parian ware by Copeland. Alexandre Falguière (1831-1900) Alexandre Falguière studied under Jouffroy at L’Ecole des Beaux Arts, exhibiting for the first time at the Salon in 1857. He won the Prix de Rome in 1859 and continued to find extraordinary success at the International Exhibitions of the period including the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1867 where he won a first class medal. He was awarded the Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur in 1870. As well as private commissions he undertook a number of important commissions for the French state. In 1878 he was asked by the state to realise the Triomphe de la République, placed in 1881 at the summit of the Arc de Triomphe (taken down in 1886). His most important international work was the Lafayette monument in Washington D.C.
Cesare Lapini (1848- After 1893) Cesare Lapini was part of the highly successful Florentine school of sculptors of the late nineteenth century which included Vittorio Caradossi, Fernando Vichi and Pasquale Romanelli. They supplied a significant quantity of marble sculpture to an increasingly international clientel during the late 19th century. Continuing in the tradition of the Grand Tour, European aristocracy, alongside a new class of industrialists, entrepreneurs and financiers from the Americas visited Florence buying allegorical and genre sculpture, works after the Antique and portrait busts.
This bronze was based on the main theme of his painting Pollice verso (1872). The same year he exhibited a marble statue at the 1878 Salon, based on his early painting Anacreon, Bacchus and Cupid (1848).
Among his other works are Omphale (1887), and the statue of the Duc d'Aumale (1899) which stands in front of the Château de Chantilly. His life size statue Bellona (1892), in ivory, bronze and gemstones, attracted great attention at the exhibition in the Royal Academy of London. The artist then began an interesting series of 'conquerors', wrought in gold, silver and gems entitled Bonaparte Entering Cairo (1897); Tamerlane (1898); and Frederick the Great (1899).
Adolphe Itasse (1830 -1893) Adolphe Itasse an important French sculptor born in Loumarin (Vaucluse) in 1830 and died in Paris in 1893. He studied under Belloc and Jacquot and exhibited at the Salon from 1864 to 1893. He worked on a number of public commissions for the Louvre (Retour de la Chasse), l Opera (Philidor, Puccini, Cambert), the Trocadero Palace (L Astronomie) and Hotel de Ville de Paris (La Vapeur ; Le Gaz). He specialised in busts, portrait reliefs and heads of contemporary personalities. He also sculpted a number of genre and allegorical works, such as The Kiss, The Birth of Love, Astronomy and Science. Amongst other awards he won a medal at the 1875 Salon and an honorable mention at the Universal Exhibition of 1889.
Works by Gérôme are now in the collections of the Musée d'Orsay, Paris; the John Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia; the National Gallery, London, and many more leading institutions worldwide.
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Frederic, Lord Leighton (1830-1896) Famed for his paintings and sculptures of historical, mythological and religious subjects, Frederic, Lord Leighton served as President of the Royal Academy for 18 years.
Favouring allegorical and mythological subjects of beautiful women, Lapini was praised for the realism of his graceful statues which make fantasies come to life. As was the practice of the time, popular works were exhibited and made to order so more than one example were produced. The attribution of ‘Rosa Senza Spine’ to Lapini is made with reference to another example signed ‘C. Lapini Firenze’ (sold Sotheby’s, London, 1 March 1996, lot 219) and a photograph showing this composition as part of Lapini’s display at the 1900 Paris Exposition universelle.
Born in Yorkshire to wealthy parents, Leighton spent his late teens and early twenties travelling around Europe, studying at various academies in Italy, Germany and France. In 1855, he made his first submission to the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition, Cimabue’s Celebrated Madonna. On the opening day of the exhibition Leighton’s painting was bought by Queen Victoria, establishing Leighton as an important emerging artist. He was elected an Associate Member of the Royal Academy in 1864, over the following years, he successfully forged close friendships with artists both inside and outside the Academy and continued to regularly exhibit impressive paintings of classicising subjects; in 1868 he became a full Royal Academician. Leighton produced both paintings and sculptures. In both cases he produced numerous preparatory drawings and also made plaster models on which he could drape fabric and study the effects of drapery on the figures.
Lapini and his family established sizeable workshop and gallery premises in Florence and exhibited at the Esposizione Generele Italiana in Turin in 1884 and in Rome in 1888 before expanding internationally by participating in the Great Exhibitions and Worlds Fairs. Fratelli Lapini were awarded a diploma at an exhibition of contemporary Italian Art in London in 1888 which was presided over by the King of Italy and H.R.H the Prince of Wales. Lapini put on a dazzling display at 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle and an equally impressive stand at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair in the name of ‘E. & C. Lapini Bros & Sons of Florence’ receiving a Grand Prize for their statue ‘First Quarter of the Moon’.
Leighton’s 1878 sculpture, An Athlete Wrestling with a Python has been retrospectively heralded as the beginning of the “New Sculpture” movement, which sought to imbue sculpture with a new sense of dynamism and naturalism. In 1878, Leighton was elected President of the Royal Academy, cementing his position at the centre of London’s art world. By the 1880s he also served on the advisory boards of the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery and the Sir John Soane’s Museum.
Leighton was knighted in 1878 and in 1896 became the first painter to be given a peerage. Sadly, this was a short-lived honour as the artist died the following day. His last words were “My love to the Academy”. After an elaborate funeral arranged by the Royal Academy, Leighton was buried at St Paul’s Cathedral. His home in Holland Park has been preserved as the Leighton House Museum Luca Madrassi (1848-1916) Born in Tricesimo, Italy in 1848, Madrassi began his art studies in Rome before studying at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, under the famous master Pierre-Jules Cavelier.
Madrassi joined the studio of the famous sculptor Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (1824-1887) and later Antoine Bourdelle (1861 1929); both of which had great influence on the playful romantic quality of his work. He also assisted the Scottish sculptor Lord Ronald Gower (1845-1916). Known primarily for busts and statuettes his work is typically defined by an imaginative and sensitive interpretation of allegorical themes.
Madrassi exhibited frequently at the Salon of the Société des Artistes Francais from 1879 onwards, obtaining an honourable mention on several occasions (1881 , 1882 , 1883 and 1885) and a thirdclass medal in 1896. In 1890 he finally obtained French nationality and became a full member of the Société des Artistes Français. He also exhibited at the Salon of the Société Nationale des BeauxArts in 1896.
Pierre-Jules Mêne (1810-71)
He developed his natural talents as an animal sculptor under René Compaire and furthered his knowledge at the Zoo in the Jardin des Plantes, interpreting his own sketches and maquettes into bronze cast by his own hand. He rapidly established a reputation for himself and in 1838 exhibited a bronze group of a ‘Dog and Fox’ at the Salon. In the same year Mêne established his own foundry, exhibiting one or more models almost every year at the Salon until his death in Paris in 1871, and beyond with entries accepted on his behalf until 1879.
Mêne won four medals at the Salon and at major exhibitions, receiving the Cross of the Légion d’Honneur in 1861. Mêne developed his own style of naturalism to become the most important and in turn, influential realist of his time. In France he was seen by the purists as a watered down follower of Barye who Mêne rarely, if ever, tried to emulate where Barye concentrated on the violence of nature, Mêne focused on the more delicate side of animal life, giving his animals a character and natural appeal of their own, capturing in bronze a moment of the subject’s life in the wild.
In England Mêne was seen as sculpture’s answer to the artist Landseer. He had an eye to the lucrative English market and both the Coalbrookdale Foundry and the Falkirk Foundry (on the banks of the river Carron in Scotland) cast his models in iron. In fact, Mêne’s two first class medals were won at the London Exhibitions of 1855 and 1861.
Hunting groups by Pierre Jules Mêne are consistently the best among the genre.
Pierre Jules Mêne was the most successful and prolific animal sculptors of his day. He was born into an artisan family living at 84 rue du Faubourg Saint Antoine, the hub of Parisian craftsmanship, where skilled workers such as furniture manufacturers, sculptors and metalworkers were a part of everyday life.
Mêne’s father Dominique, a skilled metal turner, was a part of this thriving centre and taught his son not only the basics of metal foundry and the work of a ciseleur, but also the principles of sculpture. Mêne began by earning his living modelling for commercial porcelain outlets in a style that had been popularised by Marie Antoinette and the Sèvres factory.
Marius-Jean-Antonin Mercié (1845- 1916) Marius Jean Antonin Mercié (1845 1916) was born in Toulouse and studied at the école des Beaux Arts, Paris, under Alexandre Falguière and François Jouffroy, He made his debut at the Salon in 1868 when he won the celebrated Grand Prix de Rome with the group Thesée vainqueur du Minotaure. This entitled him to study in Rome, and whilst studying in Rome from 1869 to 1873, he already executed the models for his first two popular works, David and Gloria Victis.
After Mercié completed the plaster model of his David in Rome, it was also sent to Paris and exhibited at the Salon of 1872, where it was a great success, winning a first class medal. A life-size bronze version of the work was then exhibited at the Exposition Universelle of 1878 and acquired by the Museé du Luxembourg. In 1873 Mercié was given the Cross of the Legion of Honour - an unprecedented award for a sculptor who was still a student at the French Academy in Rome. Paul Eugène Mengin (1853-1937)
Paul Eugène Mengin was the twin brother of the painter Charles Auguste Mengin. He studied under Dumont and Millet and first exhibited at the salon in 1873. Specialising in animalier and figural groups he became a member of the Société des Artistes Français in 1884 and exhibited widely at the exhibitions of the period. He received an honourable mention in 1877; a third-class medal in 1885; a travel scholarship in 1875 and a bronze medal at the Exposition Universelle in 1900.
In 1870 whilst Mercié was still in Italy, the Prussians invaded France and he began, somewhat prematurely, modelling Gloria Victis to commemorate his country's imminent victory. Unfortunately the victory never came and Mercié re modelled his sculpture replacing the victorious soldier with one of defeat thereby transforming an allegory of Glory to the Victors into one of Glory to the Vanquished . The model for the wounded soldier was reputably based on his friend and fellow sculptor Henri Regnault who was killed on the last day of the war. The full size plaster model of Gloria Victis was exhibited at the Salon of 1874, winning the Médaille d'Honneur and critical acclaim. It was then purchased by the City of Paris for the sum of twelve thousand francs and cast in bronze by Victor Thiébaut for a further eight thousand francs. The original bronze is now placed in the Paris Hôtel de Ville. The plaster version was re exhibited at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1878, alongside bronze reductions of the group by Barbedienne.
Léon Messagé (1842-1901)
Messagé was primarily influenced by rococo ornament but he strove to re-interpret it. He did not produce slavish copies, and his original approach can be appreciated in Linke's celebrated Grande Bibliothèque and Grand Bureau exhibited at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle. A number of drawings by Messagé are recorded and after his success at the exhibition of 1889 he was encouraged to publish his designs.
Messagé enjoyed great success as a designer/sculptor before his collaboration with Linke. Indeed he was mentioned as a gold medal winner at the 1889 International Exhibition and was especially praised for his work on a cabinet by Zwiener. He came into contact with Linke in 1885 and it appears from then on Linke employed him on a regular basis.
Louis Auguste Moreau was born in Paris on April 23, 1855. He was the son of Mathurin Moreau, who in turn was the eldest son of Jean Baptiste Moreau, and was nephew to two other celebrated French sculptors Mathurin and Hyppolyte François.
'Cahier de dessins & croquis, style Louis XV: bronzes, orfévrerie, decoration, meubles' was first published by the sculptor himself, from his Paris address of 40, rue Sedaine. There were five sections with an elaborate title page surmounted by the sculptor's cipher or talisman of a wing, a pun on his own name as the messenger to the Gods, a motif he used many times on the handles of furniture designed for Linke.
Léon Messagé had a brilliant, but short lived career. He is best known for his incredible sculptural collaboration with François Linke for the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle. A gifted sculptor, Messagé was also responsible for much of the design and creative work for Roux et Brunet and Joseph-Emmanuel Zwiener.
Louis Auguste studied under his father, an award winning Nineteenth Century sculptor, as well as at the école des beaux arts in Paris. He exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1877, winning a third class award. He also exhibited at the Exposition Universelle in 1900 where he won a bronze medal.
Louis Auguste Moreau (1855 - 1919)
Louis specialised in allegorical and classical groups, statuettes of historical personalities and busts of his contemporaries.
Théodore Louis Auguste Rivière (French, 1857 1912) was a French sculptor born in Toulouse. He trained at ‘l'école des beaux-arts de Toulouse’, and at’ l'école nationale des beaux-arts de Paris’; his early work heavily influenced by the work of Falguière and Mercié.
He worked in bronze and bronze and ivory in the Art Nouveau and Art Deco style, his work was characterised by the lifelike quality of his subjects, often with a sense of contained movement and a refinement of form and materials.
Pasquale Romanelli (1812-1887) Pasquale Romanelli was a pupil of Luigi Pampaloni and Lorenzo Bartolini in Florence. He subsequently became Bartolini’s collaborator and continued his studio on the latter’s death. Romanelli achieved recognition in his own right, executing numerous public monuments in his native Italy, as well as exhibiting both in Paris and London. He was particularly renowned for his sensuous treatment of mythological, allegorical and biblical female figures. Romanelli, exhibited a figure of Ruth, at the Paris Salon in 1851.
Théodore Louis Auguste Rivière (1857 - 1912)
Aristide Petrilli (1868-1930) Petrilli was born in Tivoli, Lazio and studied at the Art Institute of Florence and then the Academy in 1889 90. He worked with Raffaello Romanelli before setting up his own studio at Via Dei Serragli in Florence. Petrilli, like his contemporaries Caradossi and Frilli, is best known for his romanticised depictions of Renaissance and Neo-Classical themes often employing different coloured marbles, or gilt highlights. He exhibited a bust of Joan of Arc at the Paris International Exhibition of 1900 and Wrestling Bacchantes at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition (St. Louis World's Fair).
Henri Honoré Plé (1853 - 1922) Henri Honoré Plé studied under Gérault and Mathurin Moreau, and worked as a painter and sculptor of portraits and bas reliefs. He exhibited at the Salon from 1877 onwards winning an honourable mention in 1879 before going on to receive a bronze medal at the Paris 1900 Exposition Universelle.
Raffaello Romanelli (1856–1928)
From the 1890s Raffaello’s fame found momentum with a multitude of commissions such as the monument to Giuseppe Garibaldi and a statue of Donatello for the Basillica of San Lorenzo, Florence. Another important Florentine figure immortalised by Raffaello's hands was Benvenuto Cellini, whose bronze bust stands in the middle of the Eastern side of Florence's Ponte Vecchio. In December 1888 Raffello was made a Accademico Corrispondente at the Florence Academy of Fine Arts and in 1862 a Professor of the Academy. Raffaello achieved international acclaim by winning a competition to make the monument to Tsar Alexander II of Russia and worked profusely for the royal court of Romania, becoming friends with King Carol I and Queen Elisabeth of Wied, producing a bust of King Carol himself and of Queen Victoria’s granddaughter Princess Maria of Edinburgh,
Raffaello Romanelli was the son of Florentine sculptor Pasquale Romanelli who had worked under Lorenzo Bartolini and took over his studio in Borgo San Frediano. The first commission for the young Raffaello was to sculpt in marble the hand of Lorenzo Bartolini, which was gifted to the Russian Princess Orloff. Sating early ambitions for a life at sea with a secondment in the Merchant Navy, the young Raffaello returned home and enrolled at the Florence Academy, studying under such masters as Professor Augusto Rivalta and Emilio Zocchi and winning the annual prize for sculpture at the academy in 1876. Thereafter Raffaello was given room at his father Pasquale’s studio on the Borgo San Frediano inside a deconsecrated church, where the high ceilings accommodated the sculpting of equestrian monuments which were a mainstay of Romanelli’s production. In 1880 Raffaello’s statue of the Roman hero, Gaius Mucius Scaevola, won him a scholarship to study for a year at the Rome Academy of Arts. The piece was later exhibited in the National Gallery of Fine Arts in Florence. During these formative years Raffaello was recognised for his exceptional talent as a portraitist, and in 1884 he modelled the face of a San Frediano boy, ‘Me ne Impipo’ which is today still preserved in terracotta at the Galleria Romanelli, Florence. After the death of his father in 1887, Raffaello took over direction of the studio in Borgo San Frediano.
Raffaello Romanelli was the principal incumbent of a dynasty of Florentine sculptors who achieved considerable commercial success in the late nineteenth century. Raffaello developed the studio of his father Pasquale and ensured a legacy for his son Romano, in the Romanelli studio which continues to this day. Raffaello’s success stemmed from a natural brilliance in carving marble coupled with a business acumen which brought him international acclaim. His style favoured realism and he sought to portray great accuracy in his subject matter, something he honed in his early years working primarily as a portraitist.
Henri Weigèle (1858- 1927) Born in Schierbach, Haut Rhin, Henri Weigèle studied sculpture in Paris under Jules Franceschi, (himself a pupil of François Rude), and exhibited frequently at the Salon in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. He won the Honorable mention at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1893, followed by a third class medal in 1907 and a first class medal in 1909.
François Truphème (1820-1888) François Truphème, was a French sculptor born in Aix en Provence on March 23rd 1820 and died in Paris on January 22nd 1888. He was the eldest brother of the painter Auguste Truphème, and studied under Jean Marie Bonnassieux. He exhibited at the Salon from 1850 until his death in 1888 and was awarded with three medals, in 1859 for 'Rêverie', in 1864 for 'Une jeune fille à la source' and in 1865 for 'Le berger Lycidas sculptant le bout de son baton.' who had become the wife of King Carol I's nephew, the future King Ferdinand I of Romania. At the turn of the century Raffaello oversaw delivery of garden statuary, fountains and sculpture to Peles Castle, the Romanian royal palace in the Carpathian Mountains. Romanelli exhibited in Florence, Milan, Turin and Paris but with the outbreak of the First World War turned his attention to the United States, participating in the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco. Raffaello Romanelli worked up until his death in April 1928, bequeathing the studio to his son Romano Romanelli.
Genryusai Seiya (1868-1912) Genryusai Seiya was one of the most prominent Japanese bronze artists of the Meiji period. His workshop specialised in export wares of the highest quality, including human genre figures, vases and exotic bronze models of animals. It was for the naturalistic depiction of exotic animals that he is most celebrated, probably influenced by the opening of the Tokyo Zoological Gardens in 1882. His figures realistically cast and filled with dynamic potential.
Barbedienne was introduced to the inventor Achille Collas (1795 1859), a man who would change Barbedienne’s entire trajectory. Collas had developed a modern form of pantograph, which allowed for the scaled reproduction of sculptures in various sizes. Barbedienne, who had always been fascinated by the arts and the evolving technologies of the French industrial revolution, quickly changed tac and entered in a partnership with Collas, thus establishing the firm Collas & Barbedienne. In its infancy the company specialised in reproducing both contemporary and ancient sculpture, making fine art more accessible to the quickly mobilizing middle classes. By 1846 the workshop began to produce decorative objects in addition to the bronze reductions, becoming equipped to perform fine metal cutting, bronze mounting, marble work, turning, enamel decoration, and crystal engraving. It was also during this period that the firm became internationally recognised, winning numerous medals at the major international exhibitions, including prizes in three different categories at the 1862 Great London Exhibition alone. At the 1878 Exposition Universelle, the foundry was at its apex, as an art critic at the exhibition explained: “[Barbedienne est]… un des princes de l’industrie, le roi du bronze, le vulgarisateur de l’art ; sa maison est un temple où les dieux de l’Institut consentent à habiter….” (L. Faliz Fils, 'Industires d'art au Champs de Mars: II Les Bronzes', Exposition Universelle de 1878: Les Beaux arts et les arts décoratifs, Paris, 1879, pp. 368).
FOUNDRIES
Victor Paillard (1805 -1886) Victor Paillard (1805 -1886) established himself as a maker of 'bronzes of art and furnishing' in the year 1830 at 105 Boulevard Beaumarchais , Paris, and later 6 Rue Saint Clarde. He initially
Ferdinand Barbedienne (1810-1892) Ferdinand Barbedienne was the inspiration and driving force behind one of the most important French art foundries of the nineteenth century, rising from humble beginnings to be a recipient of the prestigious médaille d'honneur, and supreme industrial designer during an era of great technical advancement. Born the son of farmer in the Calvados region of northwest France, Barbedienne moved to Paris at the age of twelve to apprentice as a papermaker and by his early twenties he had become a successful wallpaper manufacturer in his own right. In 1838
Susse Frères Tracing its origins to 1758, the Paris foundry of Susse Frères is one of the oldest art foundries in Europe. They were appointed suppliers to Empress Marie Louise from 1812 and the Duc de Berry from 1818. Following the 1830 revolution they were granted a Royal Warrant as an official supplier to the monarchy. Originally a stationery company selling small bronze statuettes, the
Paillard first exhibited his work at the Exposition des produits de l'industrie in 1839. He had been experimenting with gilt and silvered bronze since 1839, and by 1851 his fine technique caused great admiration at the London Great Exhibition where he exhibited. E. Beres said 'Mr. V. Paillard excels in the novel art of oxydising bronze. His silver hues are perfect and on, at first glance, deceive even an expert eye...'. .
It is however for his work at one of the French Republic's most prestigious edifices the Quai d'Orsay, the French Foreign Ministry, located on the left bank of the Seine River in Paris that Paillard is most renowned. The Salon du Congrès and the Salon de l’Horloge in particular displaying the sophistication and technical brilliance of his work.
Siot Decauville was one of the best known Parisian art foundries active from the second half of the nineteenth century to the first few decades of the twentieth.
specialised in producing small objects including candelabra and statuettes and exhibited at the Fine Arts & Industry Exhibition in 1839. He continued to exhibit at many of the International Exhibitions held during the Nineteenth Century including a Louis XV style gilt bronze clock and a group of tableware and sculptures at the London Great Exhibition of 1851.
Siot-Decauville
The foundry was established by Edmond Siot Decauville in 1860 at 8 10 Rue Villehardouin together with an exhibition gallery at 24 Boulevard des Italiens. The foundry specialised in reproducing in bronze works of renowned artists of the time including: Meissonier, Mercie, Marqueste, Valton, Larche and Deschamps. Ever forward looking the output of the foundry moved away from the genre based scenes of rivals such as Barbedienne and embraced the new styles and aesthetics of art-nouveau and symbolism. After 1920 the foundry moved to 63 Avenue Victor Emmanuel III continuing to create specialist castings in lost wax technique.
In 1847 they obtained the right to use the Sauvage procedure for reduction, similar to that invented by Achille Collas and employed by Ferdinand Barbedienne. The ability to produce reductions of large scale bronzes enabled Susse to create editions of work in various sizes and opened up the market to collectors. Michel Victor Susse died in 1860 leaving Amedee as the sole director of the foundry until 1880 when Albert Susse became the director.
the company began to focus on the process of bronze casting as early as 1839 under the direction of the brothers Michel Victor and Amedee Susse. They producing in that year a six page catalogue of bronze sculpture.
Originally a foundry that designed and manufactured copper cylinders for printing fabric
In the subsequent years
Susse Frères obtained the rights to produce editions of the works of some of the most important French sculptors of the nineteenth century including: James Pradier, Pierre Jules Mêne, Auguste Cain, Pierre Nicolas Turgenev, Yevgeny Alexandrovich Lanceray, Louis-Ernest Barrias, Jules Dalou, Alexandre Falguière and Mathurin Moreau.
Renowned for the quality of its casting and multipatinated finishes, the firm of Susse Frères exhibited with notable success at many of the great exhibitions of the nineteenth century including a prize medal at the 1851 Great Exhibition in London and a Grand Prix at the 1905 Lieges Exposition Universelle. Thiébaut Frères (1844-1901) The Thiébaut Foundry (1844 1901) was one of the most important foundries of the 19th Century casting monumental works such as the 'Gloria Victis' by Mercie and the monument to the 'Defense de Paris' by Barrias.
The foundry was started by Charles Cyprien Thiébaut (1769 1830) and later passed onto his son, Charles Antoine Floréal (born 1794), who established the business on Rue du Faubourg Saint Denis under the name Thiébaut et Fils. In 1870, Victor Thiébaut left his enterprise to his three sons, who established the name Thiébaut Frères. The Foundry participated in many of the International Exhibitions of the period and was to acquire an important international reputation.
A frequent participant at the international exhibitions during the second half of the 19th Century, the prolific firm of Val d'Osne, established by J.P.V. André in 1835, was known for its extensive inventory of architectural designs and 'fancy castings'. Reputed sculptors like Carrier Belleuse, Mathurin Moreau, Pradier and Delaplanche created numerous models exclusively for Victor André. The firm met with critical acclaim at the 1857 London Exhibition with a monumental bronze fountain cast with swans and Classical figures. Acquired by Barbezat & Cie in 1867, and allying with the fondeur J.J. Ducel towards 1870, the company was eventually renamed Société Anonyme des Hauts Fourneaux & Fonderies du Val D'Osne, Anciennes maison J.P.V. André et J.J. Ducel et Fils. The most celebrated works of art cast by the firm are irrefutably the Parisian subway entrances designed by Hector Guimard.
patterns. By 1844, under Charles Antoine and his sons together Edmond and Victor Theobald (1828-1908), the company became well-established as a foundry for important art commissions. Charles Antoine retired and left the company to his two sons, who changed the name of the firm to Thiébaut Frères. Edmond died shortly thereafter in 1848, leaving Victor Theobald the sole owner of the company.
Val d'Osne
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