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RICHARD REDDING ANTIQUES |
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RICHARD REDDING ANTIQUES |
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An extremely fine late nineteenth century patinated bronze statue, cast from a model by Pierre Jules Mène by Susse Frères, signed on the base P J MENE and bearing the Susse Frères foundry stamp, portraying an Arab huntsman, a gun slung across his back, looking up toward his falcon perched on his right hand and mounted upon a prancing Arab, upon an oval naturalistic base Paris, date circa 1895-1900 Height 75 cm, length 59 cm, width 29 cm. Literature: Stanislas Lami, “Dictionnaire des Sculpteurs de l’Ecole Française”, p. 430. Pierre Kjellberg, “Les Bronzes du XIXe Siècle”, 1986, p. 477, pl. 6, illustrating the same model. The celebrated animalier sculptor Pierre Jules Mène was born on 25th March 1810 in Paris and died in the same city on 21st May 1879. As a specialist in modelling animal groups he was the most prolific and successful of his kind. Mène’s work, which can be compared to that of the esteemed animalier sculptor Antoine-Louis Barye (1796-1875), was equally realistic but was treated in a more romantic and decorative way and thus appealed to a wide public both in France and especially in England. He produced a number of Orientalist subjects featuring native hunters and tribesmen of North Africa, of which this is one of the finest examples comparing to his ‘Chasseur Africain” and “Fauconnier Arabe à Pied”, which were also posthumously reproduced by the Susse Frères foundry. ‘Chasse au Faucon’, otherwise known as ‘Fauconnier Arabe à Cheval’ first appeared as a wax model at the Salon of 1873 and at the Exposition Universelle 1878 and as a bronze at the Salon 1874. This and many other celebrated models were listed in the Susse Frères catalogue “Collection Complète des Bronzes d’Art de P. - J. Mène et de Aug. Cain”, no. 4, priced at 1000 Frs.; silvered bronze models were priced at 1200 Frs. and gilded models at 1650 Frs. Examples of ‘Le Fauconnier Arabe’ are housed at the Musées de Morlaix, Toulon and Château de Compiègne. In addition, Mène’s subjects included both wild and domesticated animals from ducks, foxes, sheep and especially dogs, of which there are examples at the Musées de Marseille, Nîmes and Reims and Arts Décoratifs and Carnavalet in Paris. He also excelled at modelling equestrian groups notably his ‘L’Accolade’ (Musée du Louvre) and famous racehorses such as ‘Djinn’, (Salon 1849, Musée des Beaux Arts Dijon). Other examples from his outstanding oeuvre can be found at the Musées de Béziers, Agen, Guéret, Nantes, Petit Palais Paris and Rouen. Mène achieved huge commercial success as well as critical acclaim resulting in him being awarded the Légion d’Honneur in 1861. He also gained a number of medals at the Paris Salon, where he was a regular exhibitor 1838-79; these included first class medals in 1852 and 1861, a second class medal in 1848 and a third class medal at the Exposition Universelle in 1855. He also exhibited in London at the Great Exhibition of 1851 and its successor in 1862 and was much appreciated by the English public who regarded his work in the same vein as that of Sir Edwin Landseer. Having acquired skills in casting and chasing from his father Dominique, who was a metal-turner Mène later studied under the sculptor René Compaire. Like Barye, he made copious anatomical studies and life drawings of the animals in the zoo at the Jardin des Plantes, Paris before creating his final sculptures. He married at the age of 22 and at about this time was executing models for porcelain manufacturers and small-scale sculptures for the commercial market. Then in 1837 he opened his own foundry in rue du Temple for the production of his own casts. In 1842 he moved to Faubourg du Temple and finally in 1857 to rue de l’Entrepôt-du-Marais. In addition to casting editions of his own models his foundry produced casts from the work of Auguste-Nicolas Cain (1821-1894), his partner and from 1852 his son-in-law. Together they published a catalogue of their works, which could be ordered directly from the studio, ensuring popularity through the wide dissemination of their reproductions. After Mène’s death Cain continued to produce casts of the father-in-law’s work as well as his own and when Cain died in 1894 models from both sculptors were acquired by the Susse Foundry. Susse Frères, run by Victor (1806-60) and Amédée (1808-80), began casting bronzes during the 1830’s and are the only great foundry from that era still in production today. In 1847 the firm obtained the rites to use the Sauvage procedure of reduction, similar to that invented by Achille Collas. From 1880-1922 the foundry and showrooms were run by Albert Susse, who gave new impetus to the enterprise, advertising in its catalogues exclusive editions of works after both Mène and Cain as well as many other eminent sculptors. |